Italy - Geography
Italy is bounded by the Adriatic, Ionian, Ligurian, and Tyr- rhenian seas on the east, south, northwest, and west, respectively, and by the Alps to the north. The two largest islands in the Mediterranean, Sicily and Sardinia, belong to Italy. Within geographic Italy are located two sovereign enclaves: Vatican City (0.44 square kilometer), created in 1929, and the Republic of San Marino (61 square kilometers), founded in A.D. 301; San Marino is an independent sovereign republic located near Rimini.
Plains make up about one-quarter while mountains and hills compose the remaining three-quarters of Italy's total of 301.278 square kilometers. Italy borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Yugoslavia. Borders with France and Switzerland were established in the nineteenth century and follow the main Alpine watershed. After the Great War Italy convinced the victorious powers that its need for a militarily defensible border extending northward to the Brenner Pass justified incorporating the Austrian South Tyrol (the area around Bolzano), which had a German-speaking population; it retained this area after World War II. Austrian concern for the German-speaking minority in the late 1950s was assuaged by a 1969 agreement between Italy and Austria on the minority's treatment.
Italy's border with Yugoslavia was established by the 1947 Italian Peace Treaty and by later negotiations between the two countries concerning ownership of Trieste and surrounding territories. By the terms of the 1947 treaty, Italy ceded to Yugoslavia the Adriatic islands of Cherso and Lagosta (called Cres and Lastovo by Yugoslavs), and most of the Istrian Peninsula. The free territory (about 780 square kilometers) to be established as a result of that treaty was never viable, and in 1954 Italy and Yugoslavia negotiated an agreement so that each would administer part of that terri- tory. It was a workable solution, but it was not given formal status until 1975.
The major administrative and political division in Italy is the region. The 20 regions vary greatly in size and population. They were established by the 1948 Constitution, based on traditional associations, only sometimes coinciding with geographical divisions. The next smaller administrative division is the province, each named after its major city or town. The basic administrative unit is the commune.
Italy can be divided geographically into the continental region in the north and the Mediterranean peninsular and insular regions in the south (see fig. 8). The two subregions of the continental region are the Alps and the North Italian Plain; those of the south- ern region, the Apennines and their coasts; and those of the insular region, the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Many cities are situated strategically at the entrance to the mountains, on the coast as ports, or by the Po River or one of its tributaries.
Extending in an arc for over 800 kilometers, the Alps constitute the northern boundary of Italy. On the west, higher and closer together are the Western (Italian-French) Alps, which stretch from Cadibona Pass near the Ligurian Sea to Lake Maggiore; like a wall, they meet the plain practically without valleys. The widest segment of the Alps, the Central (Italian-Swiss) Alps run from Lake Maggiore to Adige Valley and Dobbiaco Pass at which point, called the Eastern (Venetian) Alps, they continue to Istria at the Yugoslav border. The Central Alps have north-south valleys ending in lakes (Lugano, Como, Maggiore) where they meet the piedmont. The Eastern Alps broaden to become the Dolomite, Carnic, and Julian Alps where there are deep valleys (such as the Adige from Verona to Bolzano) or glacial lakes (such as Lake Garda).
As the country's most important plain, the North Italian Plain contains 15 percent of Italy's territory. The North Italian Plain is surrounded on three sides by the Alps and Apennines but to the east opens toward the Adriatic Sea. The western edge of the plain lies at Cuneo and Turin and the eastern one at the Istrian Peninsula. At the foot of the Alps it is piedmont and to the east becomes the Venetian Plain. The plain is drained by Italy's largest river system, the Po River and its tributaries; the Po runs from Monte Vico east 670 kilometers toward the Adriatic Sea to its still expanding delta on the coast. The Po is well fed all year, even to the point of flooding.
The plain is fertile, densely populated, and characterized by intensive agriculture and Italy's most important industrial areas. The provinces of Bologna and Verona have the highest agricultural incomes in Italy, while Milan, Italy's second biggest city, is its leading commercial, financial, and indus- trial center, and Turin is the home of Fiat. Important smaller cities include Bologna, situated by traditional routes to Florence and between Piacenza and Rimini, and Venice-Mestre, known for both tourism and manufacturing. Administrative regions in the plain include Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto, and parts of Emilia-Romagna and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
The boot-shaped peninsula extends from northwest to southeast 1,200 kilometers into the Mediterranean Sea. The island of Sicily is located at the toe of the boot, separated from the peninsula by the Strait of Messina. The island of Sardinia lies farther to the northwest, next to Corsica, which is part of France. At the narrowest point of the Strait of Sicily, Sicily is only 145 kilometers from Tunisia. On the eastern coast of the peninsula is the Adriatic Sea and on the western coast, the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Adriatic Sea joins the Ionian Sea southeast of the sole of the boot at the Strait of Otranto.
The outstanding feature of the peninsula is the Apennine Mountains, which start by the Ligurian Sea near Savona, continue to the tip of Calabria, and have extensions in Sicily. The Apennines are lower than the Alps; the highest peak in the Apennines is Monte Corno, at only 2,914 meters. Nonetheless, the Apennines separate two important areas of population and production—the North Italian Plain and the western coast. Impeding travel, they have encouraged regionalization within central and southern Italy.
The peninsular coastal lowlands and hills form a varied region. Most inclusively, they start at the French border in the Riviera and are divided by coast. One subdivision used by geog- raphers is the so-called Anti-Apennines, consisting of the middle and lower Arno River basin (with Florence, Livorno, and Pisa), the Tuscan uplands (hills and plateaus), the hills and crater lakes of Lazio (where Rome is located), and the west coast and Tuscan Archipelago. The cities of this area are important—Florence for its artistic heritage, commerce, and tourism more than its crafts and industries; Rome as Italy's largest city, the site of the Holy See.
Although obviously part of the southern and central Apennines and associated coasts, because of their administrative grouping as the Mezzogiorno, the south of Italy and the islands of Sicily and Sardinia are considered separately. The Mezzogiorno begins south of a line drawn between Rome and Ascoli, thus including eight official regions: Campania, Abruzzi, Molise, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia. Naples, the heel of the boot, and eastern Sicily are the most densely populated areas, while Naples, the port of Bari, Taranto, and Brindisi are the most indus- trially developed areas. Overall, however, the Mezzogiorno has some of the poorest and least developed areas in Italy.
The Salentino Peninsula, also known as "the heel of Italy," is the elongated promontory that juts southeasterly from the larger Italian Peninsula. This peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea to the northeast and the Gulf of Taranto to the southwest. The peninsula consists of gently rolling hills and coastal plains, thereby promoting an agrarian economy.
The largest island in the Mediterranean is Sicily, measuring 25,710 square kilometers; Sardinia is smaller with 24,000 square kilometers. Almost four-fifths of triangular Sicily is rugged and ir- regular. The Sicilian Apennines lie on the north coast, and the still active volcano Mount Etna (3,274 meters) lies in the northeast corner. Although there are small plains at intervals from Marsala to Syracuse, the largest plains are near the towns of Catania on the west coast and Trapani on the northeast coast. Long at the cross-roads of Mediterranean trade, Sicily is now known for its fishing and tourist spots as well as for oil and natural gas deposits. Palermo continues to be one of Italy's largest cities despite steady migration from Sicily. The island's most important rivers are the Simeto and the Salso.
Like Sicily, the island of Sardinia is mountainous, but its most salient feature is a series of plateaus that run from north to south along the eastern coast. Fishing, mining, and tourism have recently provided alternatives to traditional agriculture, of which pastoralism is the most important sector. The island's principal rivers are the Tirso and the Riu Mannu.
Italy has four active volcanoes as well as numerous hot springs and fissures where gases escape from the earth. The active volcanoes are Etna on Sicily, Vesuvius near Naples, and the tiny Liparian islands of Stromboli and Vulcano off the northeastern coast of Sicily. Volcanic activity has contributed to the varied land. scape and occasional fertile areas on the peninsula and on Sicily, and has continued to pose danger to nearby inhabitants. The most recent serious eruption occurred at Vesuvius in 1944.
During the twentieth century, Italy had severe earthquakes, causing many casualties and extensive destruction in Messina in 1908, L'Aquila in 1909, Friuli-Venezia Giulia in 1976, and the Avellino-Potenza area in 1980. The earthquakes in Friuli-Vene- zia Giulia in northeastern Italy (measuring 6.5 and 6.2 on the Richter scale) occurred in May and September 1976 when 922 people died, 105,000 were left homeless, and 150 towns were damaged. The earthquake of November 1980 (6.8 on the Richter scale) affected the regions of Campania and Basilicata, especially the provinces of Avellino, Potenza, and Salerno, in southern Italy; it left over 4,600 persons dead or missing and 400,000 homeless.
Other natural disasters include floods, drought, and landslides. In some areas floods are a chronic problem; in the case of the Po River and its tributaries, floods are caused by rechanneling, which has raised the bed of the river above the surrounding countryside, and by the exploitation of natural gas and the draining marshes, which have caused land to sink. The flooding of the Arno in 1966 was famous because of the damage caused to priceless art treasures. Frequent extremes of temperature in Italy mean drought and frost as well as floods. Most landslides result from clay soils that dry thoroughly in the summer and become slippery after absorbing sustained winter rains, and others are caused by earth tremors. Landslides tend to occur near Wolterra in Toscana, sometimes causing the loss of entire villages.
L’Aquila was struck in 2009 by a powerful tremblor. Because of the quake, 309 people were killed. It truly was a scene of horror, with tragic results. Eight years on, more than 8,000 L’Aquila residents still lived in temporary accommodations. The civil protection official, Bernardo De Bernardinis, as well as six Italian Seismologists were sentenced for manslaughter in connection with the L'Aquila earthquake.
On August 25, 2016 a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the mountainous heartland of Italy, killing 300 people and leaving thousands homeless. Three-quarters of the once postcard-perfect towns of Amatrice and Accumoli remaind in ruins. Pescara del Tronto, another medieval hilltop settlement, is a pile of rubble. The August 24 quake destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. More than 45,000 aftershocks had since rattled the region, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in October, the biggest tremor to strike Italy in 36 years.
On 18 January 2017, three strong earthquakes, with magnitudes of 5.3, 5.7 and 5.6, all struck in the space of an hour. In all, there were 10 quakes over magnitude 4.0 clustered in a 10-kilometer radius around the town of Amatrice. Government officials say rebuilding the devastated towns will take at least 10 years, and they estimate the damage cost of last year’s tremblor at 23 billion euros. Many of the young in Italy’s mountainous heartland already were struggling with diminishing job opportunities, a driver for them to leave the area.
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