Italy is 63% larger than Syria.
Area: 301,340 km2 World Factbook
Population: 61,680,122 (July 2014) World Factbook
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Southern Europe. To the north, Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia, and is approximately delimited by the Alpine watershed, enclosing the Po Valley and the Venetian Plain. Wikipedia
Area: 185,180 km2 World Factbook
Population: 17,951,639 (July 2014) World Factbook
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. Wikipedia