far fewer peculiarities, for, as most of them are situated along the
great Emilian highway, they have been exposed for ages to the levelling
influences of travelling merchants and soldiers. Piacenza, a sorry
place as a fortress, carries on an important commerce. Parma, an old
ducal residence, has a rich library, a museum, and wonderful frescoes
by Correggio in its churches. Reggio, another important {228} station
on the Emilian highway, is famous as the birthplace of Ariosto. Modena
has its museum, and the precious collection of books and manuscripts
known as the _Biblioteca Estense_. Bologna the “Learned,” which has
taken the word “Libertas” for its motto, still remains one of the
most interesting of Italian cities. There are its Etruscan cemetery,
its palaces and mediæval buildings, and its two leaning towers, which
will most certainly come down in the end. Bologna is one of the great
railway centres, carries on much commerce, and increases rapidly in
population. It would have made a far better capital than Rome. Of late
years the environs of the city have been frequently flooded by the
Reno, and these disasters have cost Bologna its ancient epithet of “the
Fat.”
Near this bustling place there are others, now stagnant, which can
point only to buildings in proof that they, too, were once flourishing.
Ferrara, the ancient capital of the Estes, has fallen from its high
estate since the Po has deserted it, but still remains a place of some
importance. Ravenna has not been deserted by the Po, but by the sea,
with which it communicates now by a canal seven miles in length, and
navigable for ships drawing thirteen feet of water. The town became
the capital of Honorius and Theoderic the Goth, on account of the
protection offered by the surrounding marshes. To the exarchs it is
indebted for its curious Byzantine edifices, so rich in mosaics. As to
the ancient Etruscan city of Adria, on Venetian soil, to the north of
the Po, it could hardly have claimed at any period during the last two
thousand years to give a name to the neighbouring sea. It lies now at a
distance of fourteen miles from it, and even in the time of the Romans
it must have been surrounded by lagoons or swamps, for how else can we
explain its epithet of “Town of the Seven Seas?” Porto, at the foot of
the Euganean Hills, may owe its name to an ancient lake or river.
Towns famous on account of their history, and still populous, are
most crowded together in the southern angle of the plain, usually
known as the Romagna. The towers and crenellated walls of Imola rise
there on the banks of the Santerno. Lugo, the “town of the beautiful
Romagnese,” occupies the centre of the district of Ravenna, and has
much trade. Faenza, on the Emilian Road, is a large village rather
than a town, though it has given its name to a particular kind of
porcelain (faience). Forli is, next to Bologna, the most populous city
of Romagna. Cesena is known for the excellence of the hemp grown in the
neighbourhood. Rimini, where the Emilian Road reaches the sea, still
has a few Roman ruins, including a triumphal arch. The inhabitants
of the Romagna are distinguished by great energy. Their passions
are violent, and as frequently lead them into crime as to deeds of
heroism.[73]
[Illustration: THE PALACE AT FERRARA.]
[Illustration: VERONA.]
In Venetia there are several provincial towns of importance. Padua
abounds in monuments of art, possesses a university, and was formerly
the rival of Venice. Vicenza is embellished by the palaces erected by
Palladio. Treviso and Belluno are towns of some importance, the one
on the Sile, the other in the upper valley {229} of the Piave.
At Udine is pointed out a mound of earth said to have been thrown up
by Attila, from which he contemplated the conflagration of Aquileja.
Palmanova, on the Austrian frontier, is a regularly built fortress.
Verona, at the other extremity of Venetia, has played an important part
in the history of Italy, but its commerce and industry have fallen into
decay. It hardly fills up the space enclosed by walls and bastions, and
its present population is quite out of proportion to the multitude of
its public buildings dating from the Middle Ages, and the dimensions of
its Roman amphitheatre, capable of seating 50,000 spectators. Amongst
all the cities of Venetia it is Venice itself, the “Queen of the
Adriatic,” which has suffered least in the course of ages.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.—PALMANOVA.
Scale 1 : 86,400.]
Venice is a very ancient city. The remains of Roman buildings
discovered on the island of San Giorgia, far below the present level
of the sea, and therefore referred to in proof of the slow subsidence
of the Venetian coast, prove to us that the mud islands of the gulf
supported a population long before the invasion of the Barbarians.
These half-drowned lands may have attracted the coast population at
an early age, for they afforded security against attack, and offered
great advantages for carrying on commerce. Nevertheless, the Venice
of our time only dates from the commencement of the ninth century,
when the government of this maritime republic was established upon the
islands separated from the sea by the _lidi_, and from the mainland
by estuaries and swamps. This unique position rendered Venice almost
impregnable; and whilst the rest of Europe was being desolated by war,
Venice sent forth its commercial and warlike expeditions to every part
of the Mediterranean, established factories, and built fortresses. Not
without arduous struggles, it became the most powerful and wealthiest
of the commercial republics of Italy. It was largely indebted for
this success to its favourable geographical position, almost in the
centre of the mediæval world. Its commerce brought the Venetians into
contact with nearly every nation, and they had no prejudices against
foreigners. The Armenians were admitted to their city, and an alliance
was made even with the Turks. At the time of the Crusades the Venetian
Republic occupied the foremost position amongst the states of Europe,
and its ambassadors enjoyed a vast amount of influence. This influence
was sustained by enormous material forces. Venice had a navy of 300
vessels, manned by 36,000 sailors, and the riches of the world, whether
obtained by legitimate commerce or by violence, were accumulated in its
2,000 palaces and 200 churches. Even _one_ of the islets upon which the
city is built would have purchased a kingdom of Asia or Africa. One
of the most sumptuous cities of the West had {230} arisen upon banks
of mud, inhabited formerly only by poor fishermen. The larch forests
of Dalmatia had been cut down, and converted into piles upon which
to build palaces. More than 400 bridges of marble joined island to
island, and superb embankments of granite defended this marvellous city
against the encroachments of the sea. Great achievements in the arts
contributed their share in making _Venezia la Bella_ a city without its
equal.
But geographical discoveries, in which Venice itself took a leading
share, undermined the power of the Italian Republic. When Africa had
been circumnavigated and the New World discovered, the Mediterranean
ceased to be the great commercial sea of the world. Venice was doomed
to die. It no longer monopolized the road to India, and the increasing
power of the Turks crippled its Eastern trade. Still, so great were
its resources, that it maintained its independence for more than three
hundred years after it had lost its factories, and only fell when
shamefully deserted by General Bonaparte, its supposed ally.
The decadence of Venice was most remarkable during the dominion of
Austria. In 1840 the city had less than 100,000 inhabitants, hundreds
of its palaces were in ruins, the grass grew in its squares, and
seaweeds encumbered its landing-places. Since that time it has been
gradually recovering. A bridge of 222 arches and 2,000 feet in length
connects it with the mainland, and its commerce, though not equal to
that of Trieste, is nevertheless of considerable importance.[74] The
manufacture of looking-glasses, lace, and other articles has imparted
fresh life to Venice, and there, as well as in other towns of the
lagoons (Malamocco, Burano, Murano, and Chioggia), thousands of workmen
are busy in the production of those gay-looking glass beads which find
their way into every part of the world, and which in certain countries
of the East and in Central Africa take the place of coin. But Venice,
though less populous and active than of yore, still rejoices in its
delightful climate and its bright skies. Its gaiety and fêtes are not
yet things of the past, and its palaces, built in a style half Italian,
half Moorish, still contain the priceless masterpieces of Titian,
Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese.[75]
III.—LIGURIA AND THE RIVIERA OF GENOA.[76]
Liguria is but a narrow slip of land if we compare it with the broad
plain of the Po, but it is one of the most clearly defined districts
of Europe, and its inhabitants have retained many original traits.
The contrast between the Podane plains and the littoral region beyond
the barren Apennines is striking, but if we travel in the direction
of Provence or of Tuscany the landscape changes only by degrees. The
rampart of the Apennines surrounds the whole of the Gulf of {231}
Genoa, and there is not a single break in it. These mountains are
very different in character from the Alps, though joined to them as
the branch of a tree is united to its trunk. It is not possible to
tell where one chain ends and the other begins. If the main direction
of the mountain is to be the criterion, the Ligurian Apennines may
be said to begin at the frontier of France, near the sources of the
Tinea and Vesubio; but if great height, pastures, and perennial snow
are considered sufficient to constitute an Alpine region, then the
Apennines only begin to the east of the Col di Tenda, for the fine
summits of the Clapier, Fenêtre, and Gordalesque, to the west of that
pass, attain a height of 10,000 feet. They are quite Alpine in their
character, and may boast even of small glaciers, the most southerly
in the mountains of Central Europe. Geologists usually draw the line
where cretaceous and tertiary rocks take the place of the crystalline
rocks of the Alps. But this, too, is only a conventional division,
for these crystalline rocks, which constitute the crest of the Alps
in the west, extend far to the east, and occasionally they break
through the sedimentary formations which overlie them, and rise into
summits similar to those of the Alps. Thus the granitic summits of the
mountains of Spezia remind us of the mountain mass near the Col di
Tenda.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.—THE JUNCTION OF ALPS AND APENNINES.
Scale 1 : 1,500,000]
The chain of the Ligurian Apennines is by no means of uniform height,
but, like that of the Alps, it consists of mountain masses separated by
passes. The lowest of these passes is that to the west of Savona, named
indifferently after one of the neighbouring villages, Altare, Carcara,
or Cadibona. This pass is hardly more than 1,600 feet in height, and
is popularly looked upon as constituting the boundary between the Alps
and Apennines. The possession of this pass during war has {232} always
been considered of great importance, for it commands the approaches to
Genoa and the upper valleys of Piemont, and the Tanaro and Bormido,
which rise near it, have often run with blood.
The Apennines to the east of this pass have an average height of 3,300
feet, and beyond the Pass of Giovi (1,538 feet), through which the road
leads from Genoa to the northern plains, many summits attain a height
of 4,500 feet. Several spurs, abounding in ravines, extend here to the
north. The main chain, at the same time, retires from the coast, and
the Pass of Pontremoli, which separates the Ligurian from the Tuscan
Apennines, and through which leads the road from Parma to Spezia, is
no less than thirty miles from the sea. In this eastern portion of
the Genoese Apennines a spur detaches itself from the main chain, and
terminates in the fine promontory of Porto Venere, a magnificent rock
of black marble, surmounted formerly by a temple of Venus. This spur,
which protects the Gulf of Spezia against westerly winds, has at all
times constituted an obstacle to the intercourse between neighbouring
peoples, not so much on account of its height, but because of its
steepness. In some places the crest of the Apennines is hardly more
than four miles from the sea. The slope, in such places, is exceedingly
steep, and roads can ascend it only in numerous windings.[77]
The small width of the maritime slope of the Ligurian Apennines
accounts for the absence of perennial rivers. The most considerable
streams to the east of the Roya, which runs for the greater part
through French territory, such as the Taggia or the Centa, only assume
the appearance of rivers when the snows melt, or after heavy rains.
Ordinarily they are but small streams, closed at the mouth by bars of
pebbles. Between Albenga and Spezia, for a distance of 160 miles, there
are only torrents, and in order to meet again with a real river we must
go beyond the Gulf of Spezia. This river is the Magra, which separates
Liguria from Etruria, and which, up to the epoch of Augustus, formed
the boundary of Italy. Its alluvium has converted an ancient bay of the
sea into a lake, and formed a beach, 1,300 yards in width, in front
of the ancient Tyrrhenian city of Luni, which formerly stood on the
seashore.
The want of great rivers in Liguria is compensated for to some extent
by subterranean water-courses. Several springs rise from the bottom of
the sea, at some distance from the shore. The springs of La Polla, in
the Gulf of Spezia, are amongst the most bountiful amongst them. They
have been isolated by the Italian Government from the surrounding salt
water, and their water is supplied to ships.
Owing to the absence of rivers, the sterility of the soil, and the
steep escarpments, this portion of the Mediterranean coast region
contrasts strikingly with other parts of temperate Europe. Having
reached the summit of the mountains beyond the magnificent chestnut
forests at the head-streams of the Ellero, the Tanaro, and the Bormida,
we look down upon a scene almost African in its character. Scarcely
a blade of grass is to be seen between Nice and Spezia, and only
the grass-plots, kept up at great expense in some pleasure-gardens,
remind us that Piemont and {233} Lombardy are near at hand. Pines and
brambles would have remained the only verdure in these Ligurian valleys
and ravines if it were not for the transformation wrought by gardeners
and agriculturists. Strange to say, trees do not ascend to the same
height on the slopes of the Apennines as in the Alps, though the mean
temperature is far higher, and at an altitude at which the beech still
attains noble proportions in Switzerland we find it here stunted in
growth. Larches are hardly ever seen.
The sea is as sterile as the land. There are neither shallows,
islands, nor seaweeds affording shelter to fish. The cliffs descend
precipitously into the sea, and the narrow strips of beach, extending
from promontory to promontory, consist only of sand without the
admixture of a single shell. The Genoese fishermen, therefore, resort
to distant coasts, those of the “Ponente,” or west, going to Sicily,
whilst those of Camogli, on the Riviera di Levanto, visit the coasts of
Tuscany. This sterility of land and sea accounts for the large number
of Genoese met with in other parts of the world.
But though an unfruitful country, Liguria is exceedingly picturesque. A
traveller availing himself of the railway between Nice and Genoa, which
follows the sinuosities of the coast and pierces the promontories in
numerous tunnels, is brought within reach of the most varied scenery.
At one time the line runs close to the beach, with the foam of the sea
almost touching the track on the one side, while tamarisks bearing
pink blossoms overshadow it from the other. Elsewhere we creep up the
steep slope, and obtain a view of the cultivated terraces raised at
immense labour by the peasantry, whilst the bluish sea is seen afar
to the right, almost hidden by a grove of olive-trees, and stretching
away until lost in the direction of Corsica. Towns, villages, old
towers, villas, ship-yards, and other industrial establishments impart
an almost infinite variety to the scenery. One town occupies the top
of a hill, and, seen from below, its old walls and towers stand out
boldly against the sky; another is built amphitheatrically, close to
the strand upon which the fishermen have drawn their boats; a third is
hidden in a hollow, and surrounded by vines, olive, orange, and lemon
trees. A date-tree here and there imparts an oriental aspect to the
landscape. Bordighera, a small place close to the French frontier, is
quite surrounded by palm-trees, whose fruit, however, but rarely ripens.
The climate of Albenga, Loana, and some other places on the Genoese
coast is far from salubrious, on account of the miasmata exhaled by
sheets of stagnant water left behind by freshets. Even Genoa cannot
boast of an agreeable climate, not because there are marshes near
it, but because the southerly winds charged with moisture are caught
there by the semicircle of mountains, and are made to discharge their
superabundant humidity. The number of rainy days at Genoa averages 121
a year. There are, however, several towns along this coast protected
by the mountains against the north, and yet out of the usual track of
the moisture-laden southerly winds, whose climate is exceptionally
delightful.[78] Bordighera {234} and San Remo, near the French
frontier, are the rivals of Mentone as regards climate; and Nervi, to
the east of Genoa, is likewise a favourite place of resort, on account
of its clear sky and pure atmosphere. Villas and castles rise on every
promontory and in every valley of these favoured districts. For a
dozen miles on either side of Genoa the coast is lined by villas. The
population of the city has overflowed the walls which once confined it,
and is establishing itself in populous suburbs. The long street which
winds between factories and gardens, scales promontories, and descends
into valleys, will continue to grow in length until it extends along
the whole coast of Liguria, for the charms of the country attract men
of leisure from every quarter of Europe.
[Illustration: Fig. 79.—GENOA AND ITS SUBURBS.
From the Sardinian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 100,000.]
The historical development of the ancient Ligurians, who were probably
of Iberian race, was largely influenced by the nature of the country
they inhabited. The cultivable land being only of small extent,
the superabundant population was forced to look to the sea for a
livelihood, and engaged in navigation and commerce. Antium, the modern
Genoa, was an “emporium” of the Ligurians ever since the time of the
Romans, and its vessels frequented every corner of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
In the Middle Ages the Genoese flag was carried into every part of the
known world, and it was Genoa that gave birth to Christopher Columbus,
whose name is inscribed upon the first page of modern history as the
discoverer of America. It was a Genoese, too, Giovanni Gabotto, or
Cabot, who afresh discovered the coast of North America five centuries
after its original discovery by the {235} Normans. The hardy mariners
of Genoa have thus navigated the seas from the most remote times. Even
now they almost monopolize the navigation of the great rivers of the
Argentine Republic. The Genoese likewise enjoy a high reputation as
gardeners, and are met with in every large town of the Mediterranean.
[Illustration: Fig. 80.—VIEW OF GENOA.]
As long as the Apennines were not crossed by practicable carriage
roads, Genoa possessed no advantages whatever over the other ports of
Liguria, but ever since it has been placed in easy communication with
the fertile plains of Lombardy and Piemont, the great advantages of
its geographical position have told upon its development. Pisa was
the only republic on the western coast of Italy which contested this
superiority of Genoa, but was defeated after a sanguinary struggle.
The Genoese possessed themselves of Corsica, the inhabitants of which
were treated most cruelly; they took Minorca from the Moors, and
even captured several towns in Spain, which they restored only after
important commercial privileges had been granted them. In the Ægean Sea
the nobles of Genoa became the proprietors of Chios, Lesbos, Lemnos,
and other islands. At Constantinople the Genoese merchants were as
powerful almost as the Emperor. Kaffa, in {236} the Crimea, was one
of their wealthy colonies. Their factories and towers were met along
every commercial high-road in Asia Minor, and even in the recesses of
the Caucasus. The possession of the Black Sea gave them the command of
the trade with Central Asia. These distant colonies explain the use of
a few Arab, Turkish, and Greek terms by the Genoese, and though the
dialect spoken by them is decidedly Italian, the intonation is French.
Nevertheless Genoa, though more powerful than Pisa, failed in wresting
the command of the sea from the Venetians, who enjoyed immense
advantages through their connection with Germany. Her political
influence has never equalled that of Venice, nor has she produced as
many men eminent in literature and art as has her Adriatic rival.
The Genoese had the reputation in former times of being violent and
false, fond of luxury and power, and indifferent to everything which
did not enrich them. “A sea without fish, mountains without forests,
men without faith, women without modesty—thus is Genoa,” was a proverb
ever in the mouth of the enemies of the Ligurian city. The dissensions
amongst the noble families of Genoa were incessant, but the Bank of St.
George never allowed civil strife to interfere with business. Wealth
flowed into the city without any cessation, and enabled its citizens
to construct those palaces, marble arcades, and hanging gardens which
have won for it the epithet of _la Superba_. In the end, however, ruin
overtook the Bank, and that justly, for it had supplied princes with
money to enable them to wage war, and its bankruptcy in the middle of
the eighteenth century rendered Genoa politically impotent.
The capital of Liguria, in spite of its small extent, its sinuous
streets, its ramparts, stairs, and dirty narrow quays, may justly boast
of palaces equally remarkable for the splendour and originality of
their architecture. Many of these magnificent buildings appeared to
be doomed to ruin during the decay of the town, but, on the return of
more prosperous times, the citizens again devoted themselves to the
embellishment of their city. Genoa is the busiest port of Italy.[79]
Its shipowners possess nearly half the Italian mercantile marine, and
three-fourths of the vessels annually built in Italy are furnished
from its ship-yards. The harbour, though 320 acres in extent, no
longer suffices for the hundreds of sailing vessels and steamers which
crowd into it. Nor is it sufficiently sheltered against the winds,
and it has therefore been proposed to construct a vast breakwater far
beyond its present limits. Genoa fancies that its interests are not
sufficiently attended to by the Central Government. A second railway
across the Apennines is urgently demanded, in order to manage the
traffic that will be created by the opening of the direct railway
through Switzerland, which will place Genoa in direct communication
with Western Germany.
[Illustration: Fig. 81.—THE GULF OF SPEZIA.
From the Sardinian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 80,000.]