The tavolieri of Puglia, and the hills which command them, remain
for the most part a pastoral country, but the greater portion of the
productive area of Naples is under cultivation. As in the time of the
Romans, cereals, with oil and wine, form the principal produce; but, in
addition to these, tobacco, cotton, madder, and several other plants
used in manufactures, are grown. With some care these products might
attain a rare degree of excellence. Even now the oil of the Puglia
competes successfully with that of Nice, and the wines grown on the
scoriæ of Mount Vesuvius enjoy their ancient celebrity, the Falernian
of Horace, grown in the Phlegræan Fields, disputing the pre-eminence
with the Lachrymæ Christi of Vesuvius and the white wine of Capri.
The agricultural products of Naples are almost exclusively derived from
the coast region, and commerce is principally carried on in coasting
vessels. The interior is sterile to a great extent, and there are no
metalliferous veins to attract population.
Southern Italy has no natural centre, and, as its life has at all times
been eccentric and maritime, it is but natural that all the large
towns should have sprung up on the coast. Two thousand years ago, when
Greece was a civilised country and Western Europe sunk in barbarism,
the most important towns lay on the Ionian Sea facing the east. But,
when Rome became the mistress of the world, Magna Græcia was forced to
face about, and Naples became the successor of Sybaris and Tarentum.
This position of vantage it has retained even to the present day,
when Western Europe has become the focus of civilisation. The wave of
history has passed over Tarentum and Sybaris, and whilst the fine port
of the former is now deserted, the latter, at one time the largest city
of all Italy, has entirely disappeared. {300}
Naples, the “new town” of the Cumæans, has for centuries been the most
populous town of Italy, and even now the number of its inhabitants is
double that of Rome. In the days of Strabo Naples was a large town.
Greeks who had made money by teaching or otherwise, and who desired to
end their days in peaceful repose, used to retire to that beautiful
town, where Greek manners predominated, and the climate resembled
that of their native country. Many Romans followed their example, and
Naples, together with the numerous smaller towns dotting the shores
of its magnificent bay, thus became a place of repose and pleasure.
At the present day it attracts men of leisure from every part of the
world, who revel in its beauties and enjoy the noisy gaiety of its
inhabitants—“masters in the art of shouting,” as Alfieri called them.
The prospect from the heights of Capodimonte and the other hills
surrounding the immense city is full of beauty: promontories jut out
into the blue waters, islands of the most varied colours are scattered
over the bay, shining towns stretch along the foot of verdant hills,
and vessels ride upon the waves. Looking inland, we behold the grey
summit of Vesuvius, which, lurid at night, and always threatening,
imparts a modicum of danger to the voluptuous picture.
The Neapolitans are indeed a happy people, if such a term may be
applied to any fraction of mankind. They know how to enjoy the gifts
of nature, and are content, if need be, with very little. Naturally
intelligent, they are equal to any enterprise; but, as they hate work,
they soon give up what they have begun, and make short of their want
of success. Travellers were formerly fond of describing that curious
type, the _lazzarone_, the idle man of pleasure, who, enveloped in a
rag, slept on the beach or in the porch of a church, and disdained
to work after he had earned the pittance sufficing for his simple
wants. There still remain a few representatives of this type, but the
material exigencies of our time have absorbed the majority of these
idle tatterdemalions, and converted them into labourers. Others have
succumbed to disease, for they knew nothing of sanitary laws, and
dwelt in damp cellars, or _bassi_, beneath the palaces of the wealthy.
Naples contributes her fair share towards the industrial products of
the peninsula. The principal articles manufactured are macaroni and
other farinaceous pastes, cloth, silks known as _gros de Naples_,
glass, china, musical instruments, artificial flowers, ornaments,
and everything entering into the daily consumption of a large city.
Its workers in coral are famous for their skill; and Sorrento, near
Naples, supplies the much-prized workboxes, jewel cases, and other
articles carved in palm-wood. The ship-yards of Castellamare di Stabia
are more busy than any others in Italy, those of Genoa and Spezia
alone excepted. The sailors of the bay are equal to the Ligurians
in seamanship, and surpass them as fishermen. The inhabitants of
Torre del Greco, who engage in coral-fishing, are well acquainted
with the submarine topography of the coasts of Sardinia, Sicily, and
Barbary, and the least movement of the air or water reveals phenomena
to them which remain hidden to all other eyes. They own about 400
fishing-boats, which depart in a body, and their return after a
successful season presents a spectacle which even Italy but rarely
affords.[103]
[Illustration: NAPLES.]
{301}
Naples, with its magnificent bay, and the fertile tracts of the
Campania and the Terra di Lavoro near it, could hardly fail to become
a great commercial city, and if it holds an inferior rank in that
respect to Genoa, this is owing to its not being placed upon a great
high-road of international commerce. The country depending upon it is
of comparatively small extent; only a single line of rails crosses
the Apennines; and travellers who follow the mountain road to Taranto
are not, even now, quite safe from brigands. The foreign commerce of
the city is carried on principally with England and France, and the
coasting trade is comparatively of great importance.[104]
[Illustration: Fig. 109.—POMPEII.
From the Neapolitan Staff Map. Scale 1 : 35,000.]
The university is one of the glories of Naples. Founded in the first
half of {302} the thirteenth century, it is one of the oldest of
Italy, but has had its periods of disgraceful decay. Up to a recent
period, when archæology and numismatics were the only sciences not
suspected of revolutionary tendencies, it was a place of intellectual
corruption, but its regeneration has been brought about with marvellous
rapidity. The young Neapolitans now study science with a zest sharpened
by abstinence; and, if the rather gushing eloquence of the South could
be trusted, Naples has become the greatest seat of learning in the
world. Thus much is certain, that the 2,000 students of the university
will give a great impulse to the “march of ideas.”
Naples possesses an admirable museum of antiquities, open to all the
world, and, more precious still, the ruins of Pozzuoli, Baiæ, and Cumæ,
and catacombs no less interesting than are those of Rome; and, above
everything else, the Roman city of Pompeii, which has been excavated
from the ashes of Mount Vesuvius, beneath which it lay buried for
seventeen centuries. It is not merely a City of the Dead, with its
streets and tombs, temples, markets, and amphitheatres, which these
excavations have restored to us, but they have likewise given us an
insight into the life of a provincial Roman city. When we gaze upon
inscriptions on walls and waxed tablets, at work interrupted, at
mummified corpses in the attitude of flight, we almost feel as if we
had been present at the catastrophe which overwhelmed the town. No
other buried city ever presented us with so striking a contrast between
the tumult of life and the stillness of death. In spite of a hundred
years of excavation, only one-half of the city has yet been revealed
to us. Herculaneum is buried beneath a layer of lava sixty feet in
thickness, upon which the houses of Resina, Portici, and other suburbs
of Naples have been built, and but very few of its mysteries have
been revealed to us. Of Stabiæ, which lies hidden beneath the town of
Castellamare, close to the beach, we know hardly anything.
[Illustration: CAPRI, SEEN FROM MASSA LUBRENSE.]
Numerous populous towns cluster around Naples, rivalling it in beauty.
To the south, on the shores of the bay, are Portici, Resina, Torre del
Greco, Torre dell’ Annunziata, Castellamare, and sweet Sorrento, with
its delicious climate, its delightful villas and olive groves. Off Cape
Campanella, facing the volcanic islands of Ischia and Procida, at the
other extremity of the bay, rise the bold cliffs of Capri, full of the
memories of hideous Tiberius, the _Timberio_ of the natives. Another
bay opens to the south of that barren mass of limestone, its entrance
guarded by the islets of the Sirens, who sought in vain to cast their
spell over sage Ulysses. This bay is hardly inferior in beauty to that
of Naples; its shores are equally fertile, but neither of the three
cities, Pæstum, Amalfi, and Salerno, which successively gave a name
to it, has retained its importance for any length of time. Amalfi,
the powerful commercial republic of the Middle Ages, whose code was
accepted by all maritime nations, is almost deserted now, and only
shelters a few fishing-smacks within its rocky creek. In a delightful
valley near it stands the old Moorish city of Ravello, almost as rich
as Palermo in architectural monuments. Salerno is much more favourably
situated than Amalfi, for the road of the Campania debouches upon it.
The town is said to have been founded by a son of Noah, and when the
Normans occupied the country in the eleventh century {303} they made
it their capital. But its ancient splendours have gone. Its university,
at one time the representative of Arab science, and the most famous
in Europe for its medical faculty, has made no sign for ages, and
Salerno has now no claim whatever to the title of “Hippocratic town.”
It aspires, however, to rise into importance through commerce and
industry, and a breakwater and piers might convert it into a formidable
rival of Naples. The inhabitants are fond of repeating a local proverb―
“When Salerno a port doth obtain
That of Naples will be inane.”
Pæstum, or Posidonia, the ancient mistress of the bay, stood to the
south-east of Salerno. It was founded by the Sybarites on the ruins
of a more ancient town of the Tyrrhenians. The Roman poets sang this
“city of roses” on account of its cool springs, shady walks, and mild
climate. It was destroyed by the Saracens in 915, and its ruins, though
amongst the most interesting of all Italy, dating as they do from a
period anterior to that of Rome, were known only to shepherds and
brigands up to the middle of last century. Its three temples, the most
important of which was dedicated to Neptune, or Poseidon, are amongst
the most imposing of continental Italy, their effect being heightened
by the solitude which surrounds them and the waves which wash their
foundations. The traveller, however, cannot afford to remain for any
length of time within their vicinity, for the site of the ruins is
surrounded by marshes, the exhalations from which sadly interfere with
the excavations going on.
Numerous towns and villages are dotted over the champaign country
separating Mount Vesuvius from the foot-hills of the Apennines.
Starting from Vietri, a suburb of Salerno on the banks of a narrow
ravine, we ascend to Cara, a favourite summer retreat, abounding in
shade-trees. Near it is a monastery famous amongst antiquaries on
account of its ancient parchments and diplomas. On descending to the
plain of the Sarno we pass Nocera, a country residence of the ancient
Romans; Pagani, still situated within the region of woods; Angri, which
manufactures yarns from cotton grown in its environs; and Scafati, more
industrious still. Near it may be seen the ruins of Pompeii, the town
of Torre dell’ Annunziata, and, on the southern slope of Vesuvius, the
houses of Bosco Tre Case and Bosco Reale. There are savants who believe
they can trace in the veins of the inhabitants of Nocera and the
neighbourhood the Arab and Berber blood of the 20,000 Saracens who were
settled here by the Emperor Frederick II.
The valley of the Sarno, above Nocera, is densely peopled as far as the
foot of the Apennines, and another chain of villages extends northwards
to the town of Avellino, the fields of which are enclosed by hedges
of filbert-trees (_avellana_ in Italian), and which is important on
account of its intermediary position between the mountains and the
plain. The population, however, is densest in that portion of the
Campania known as the “Happy” (Felice), which extends between Vesuvius
and Monte Vergine. Sarno, named after the river, though far away from
it, abounds in cereals, vines, fruit, and vegetables, and manufactures
cotton stuffs and raw silk. Palma stands in the midst of fertile
fields; Ottajano, the {304} town of Octavius, on the lower slope of
the Somma of Vesuvius, is famous for its wines; Nola, where Augustus
died, and which gave birth to Giordano Bruno, has fertile fields, but
is better known through the fine Greek vases found in its ruins, and
on account of the remains of an amphitheatre built of marble, and of
greater size than that of Capua.
Famous Capua, the ancient metropolis of the Campania, at one time the
rival of Rome, with half a million inhabitants dwelling within its
walls, has been completely stripped of its former splendours. Its name
is applied now to a sullen fortress on the Volturno, the _Casilinum_
of the Romans; and Santa Maria, which is the representative of the
veritable Capua, offers no “delights” other than those of a large
village. In its environs, however, may still be seen the ruins of a
fine amphitheatre, a triumphal arch, and other remains of a vast city.
Caserta, the “town of pleasure” of the modern Campania, lies farther to
the south. It boasts of a large palace, shady parks, and vast gardens
ornamented with statues and fountains, and was the Versailles of the
Neapolitan Bourbons. An aqueduct supplies it with water from a distance
of twenty-five miles, and crosses the valley near Maddaloni by means
of a magnificent bridge, built about the middle of last century by
Vanvitelli, and one of the masterpieces of modern architecture.
The great Roman highway bifurcates to the north of Capua and the
Volturno. One branch turns towards the coast; the other, along which a
railway has been built, skirts the volcano of Rocca Monfina, follows
the valley of the Garigliano and of its tributary the Sacco as far
as the eastern foot of the volcano of Latium, and then descends into
the Campagna of Rome. Historically the coast road is the more famous
of the two. It first passes close to Sessa, the ancient city of the
Aurunci, whose acropolis stood in the crater of the Rocca Monfina. It
then turns towards the coast, and having crossed the Garigliano near
its mouth, where it is bounded by insalubrious marshes, it penetrates
the defile of Mola di Gaeta, officially called Formia, in memory of
ancient Formiæ, where Cicero lived and died. Travellers coming from
Rome first look down from this spot upon the beauties of the Campania,
and see stretched out before them the Bay of Gaeta, with the volcanic
islands of Ponza, Ventotene, and Ischia in the distance. Gaeta, a
fortress which guards this gateway to the Neapolitan paradise, is built
on the summit of Monte Orlando, occupying a small peninsula attached to
the mainland by an isthmus only 300 yards in width. The port of Gaeta
is well sheltered against westerly and northerly winds, and is much
frequented by coasting vessels and fishing-smacks; but Gaeta itself is
better known as a fortress. It was here the kingdom of the Two Sicilies
was put an end to by the surrender of Francis II. in 1861.
[Illustration: AMALFI.]
Towns of some importance are likewise met with on following the eastern
road from Naples to Rome. The most considerable amongst them is San
Germano, the name of which has recently been changed into Casino,
in honour of the famous monastery of that name occupying a terrace
to the west of the town, and affording a glorious prospect of hills
and valleys. This monastery was founded in the sixth century by St.
Benedict, or Bennet, and its rules have been accepted throughout {305}
the Eastern Church. No body of men has ever exercised a greater
influence upon the history of Catholicism than these Benedictine
monks of Monte Casino. At the height of its power the order held vast
estates throughout Italy, and many popes and thousands of Church
dignitaries have been furnished from its ranks. The library of Monte
Casino is one of the most valuable in Europe, and the services formerly
rendered to science by the Benedictines have saved this monastery from
disestablishment, a favour likewise extended to the monastery of La
Cava and the Certosa of Pavia.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.—THE MARSHES OF SALPI.
Scale 1 : 225,000.]
There are but few towns of importance in the mountain region of Naples.
Arpino, the ancient Arpinum, the birthplace of Cicero and Marius, with
cyclopean walls built by Saturn, is the most populous place in the
upper valley of the Liri, to the south of the mountains of Mantese.
Benevento occupies a central position on the Calore, the principal
tributary of the Volturno, and several roads diverge from it. The
ancient name of this place was _Maleventum_, but in spite of its change
of name the town has frequently suffered from sieges and earthquakes,
and of all the great edifices of its past there now remains only a fine
triumphal arch erected in honour of Trajan. The city walls, nearly four
miles in circumference, have for the most part been constructed from
the fragments of ancient monuments.
Ariano, to the east of Benevento, and also in the basin of the
Volturno, is built upon three hills commanding a magnificent prospect,
extending from the {306} often snow-clad Matese Mountains to the cone
of the Vultur. It lies on the railroad connecting Naples with Foggia
and the Adriatic, and carries on a considerable trade. Campobasso, the
capital of Molise, is likewise an important commercial intermediary,
though still without a railway.
The commercial towns on the Adriatic slope of the Apennines are of
greater importance than those to the east. Foggia, on the Tavoglieri
di Puglia, upon which converge four railways and several high-roads,
is a great mart for provisions, and in importance and wealth, though
not in population, is the second city of Naples. Several smaller
towns surround it like satellites, such as San Severo, Cerignola,
and Lucera, which became wealthy in the thirteenth century, when the
Saracens, exiled from Sicily by Frederick II., settled here. Foggia,
however, and its sister cities, in spite of the proximity of the Bay
of Manfredonia, have no direct outlet to the sea, for the coast for a
distance of thirty miles, from Manfredonia to the mouth of the Otranto,
is fringed by insalubrious lagoons and marshes. The reclamation of
these is absolutely necessary to enable Southern Italy to develop its
great natural resources. The largest of these lagoons or marshes, that
of Salpi, has been reduced to the extent of one-half by the alluvium
conveyed into it by the rivers Carapella and Ofanto, but as long as the
new land remains uncultivated deadly miasmata will not cease. At the
eastern extremity of this marsh stood the ancient city of Salapia.
At the extremity of the peninsula of Gargano, to the north of these
marshes, are the harbours of Manfredonia and Vieste, very favourably
situated for sailing vessels compelled by stress of weather to put into
port. The first harbour to the south of the marshes is Barletta, near
which is the “Field of Blood,” recalling the battle of Cannæ. Barletta
exports cereals, wines, oil, and fruit, partly grown on the old feudal
estates near the inland towns of Andria, Corata, and Ruyo. The latter,
the ancient _Rubi_, has yielded a rich harvest of antiquities of every
kind. The other coast towns to the south-east of Barletta are—Trani,
which carried on a considerable Levant trade towards the close of
the Middle Ages; Bisceglia; Molfetta; Bari, the most populous town
on the Adriatic slope of Naples; and Monopoli, all of which are much
frequented by coasting vessels. Tasano, near Monopoli, occupies the
site of the ancient port of Gnatia, and, like Rubi, has well repaid the
search for archæological remains.
Brindisi, at the northern extremity of the peninsula of Otranto, in
the time of the Romans and during the Crusades, was one of the great
stations on the route from Western Europe to the East, and is likely
again to occupy that position. It lies at the very entrance to the
Adriatic. Its roadstead is excellent, and its harbour one of the best
on the Mediterranean. The entrance is narrow, and was formerly choked
up with the remains of wrecks and mud, but is now practicable for
steamers of the largest size. The two arms of the harbour bear some
resemblance to the antlers of a stag, and to this circumstance the
town is indebted for its name, which is of Messapian origin, and means
“antler-shaped.” Brindisi has recently become the European terminus
of the overland route to India, and many new buildings have risen
in honour of this event, which it {307} was expected would convert
the town into an emporium of Eastern trade. These expectations have
not been realised. Several thousand hurried travellers pass that way
every year, but Marseilles, Genoa, and Trieste have lost none of their
importance as commercial ports in consequence. Moreover, when the
Turkish railways are completed, the position now held by Brindisi will
most likely be transferred to Saloniki or Constantinople.[105]
[Illustration: Fig. 111.—THE HARBOUR OF BRINDISI IN 1871.
Scale 1 : 86,000.]
Taranto, on the gulf of the same name, is making an effort, like its
neighbour Brindisi, to revive its ancient commercial activity. Its
harbour, the _Piccolo Mare_, or “little sea,” is deep and perfectly
sheltered, and its roadstead, or _Mare Grande_, is fairly protected by
two outlying islands against the surge. As at Spezia, springs of fresh
water, known as Citro and Citrello, rise from the bottom of the harbour
as well as in the roadstead. The geographical position of Taranto
enables it successfully to compete with Bari and the other ports of the
Adriatic for the commerce of inland towns like Matera, Gravina, and
Altamura, and it appears to be destined to become the great emporium
for the Ionian trade. No other town of Italy offers equal facilities
for the construction of a port, but the two channels, one natural and
the other artificial, which join the two “seas” have become choked,
and only small craft are now able to reach the harbour. Modern Taranto
is a small town, with narrow streets, built to the east of the Greek
city of Tarentum, on the {308} limestone rock bounded by the two
channels. Its commerce has been slowly increasing since the opening of
the railway, its industry being limited to fishing, oyster-dredging,
and the manufacture of bay-salt; and the Tarantese enjoy the reputation
of being the most indolent people in Italy. The heaps of shells on
the beach no longer supply the purple for which the town was formerly
famous; but the inhabitants still make use of the byssus of a bivalve
in the manufacture of very strong gloves.
The only towns of any importance in the peninsula stretching
southwards from Brindisi and Taranto are Lecco and Gallipoli, the
former surrounded by cotton plantations, the latter—the Kallipolis,
or “beautiful city,” of the Greeks—picturesquely perched on an islet
attached by a bridge to the mainland. The surrounding country, owing to
the want of moisture, is comparatively barren.
[Illustration: Fig. 112.—THE HARBOUR OF TARANTO.
Scale 1 : 208,000.]
The western peninsula of Naples is far better irrigated than that of
Otranto, but this advantage is counterbalanced to a large extent by the
mountainous nature of the country, and by its frequent earthquakes.
Potenza, a town at the very neck of this peninsula, half-way between
the Gulf of Taranto and the Bay of Salerno, most happily situated as a
place of commerce, has repeatedly been destroyed by earthquakes, and
its inhabitants have only ventured to rebuild it in a temporary manner.