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Here I'd like to offer a summit in English from the book "L'Identitŕ Italiana" (The Italian Identity), written by the professor and journalist Ernesto Galli della Loggia. The purpose is first to make foreigners know and understand my country, and second to (I hope) interest my countrymen and to stimulate considerations about Italy, especially on its cultural peculiarities.
I will follow the structure of the book, giving of it only a summit, chapter after chapter.
1) An extraordinarian geographical position.
North and South, East and West.
Italy has got a very particular geographical position. Not only it stays in the centre of Europe and has got a prolonged form that goes from the Alpine scenario to the subtropical areas of Sicily and Calabria; it is also a bridge between Eastern and Western Europe. The Padanian Plane, for exemple, has been for centuries a door (and still is) that connects the Balcanian peninsula (and world) to the Atlantic, Franco-Iberic area.
Maybe distracted by the most visible dualism of the peninsula, North and South, it is often forgotten the other great dualism: East vs West.
Communications between the two banks of the Appennine have been for centuries very hard, almost null. Still today the costal cities of the two banks (the Adriatic and the Tirrenic) have more exchanges with the foreign countries on the opposite bank of the sea than with the Italian region behind the Appennine.
Therefore, the Tyrrenic coast has and has always got trades and exchanges with France (Norther regions), Spain (central regions) and Northern Africa (southern regions); instead, the Adriatic side had relations with the Balcanian Peninsula (North and Central regions) and with Greece.
The inclination of Italy must be taken in consideration indeed, becouse all the cities which are southernmore than the line Cassino-Porto S. Giorgio are also easternmore than Trieste, the Easternmost Northern Italian city.
So the South is also a South East and Otranto, the easternmost Italian city, lies under the same axis of Budapest and of Danzica.
The dualism East-West was rapresented very well during the Sea Republics era, when Genoa and Venice were rival cities and the Adriatic Sea was called "The Gulf of Venice".
An interesting proof of this dualism is also the random fact that during the '700 the two banks of Tuscan-Umbrian Appennine were connected by only 2 transitable bridges.
The two coasts developed great differences and peculiar identities.
About geography, we have also to mention the deepest climatic differences that are in Italy. While the Alpine brand and some points of the Appennine acheve temperatures that in winter become colder than various places of Northern Europe, Sicily and some parts of Southern Italy present a subtropical climate.
A harsh climate.
A stereotyped image sees Italy as a country with a good climate, where fruits born spontaneously without great efforts.
On the contrary, Italy has a climate which is very hostile to agriculture, that produces a surplus only with big efforts and great creativity. This is at the base of two aspects that unified Italy: the poorty, that for centuries afflicted the country, and the slyness-creativity.
Agriculture used to be very harsh and usually was a subsistence farmer.
The most disadvantaged areas were the South and some areas of the North.
The coastal areas were also very problematic, becouse until some decades ago many of them were covered by marshlands, often guesting malaria, a real plague for those zones. Affected by malaria where the Southern part of Abruzzo, part of Latium, Apulia, most Sicily, Campania and Calabria.
The happy, but often false image of a good climate dates back to the ancient time, when, comparing Italy to the other Mediterranean countries, its climate was better for farmer.
The Beauty
An other unificator of Italy is the beauty. Italy is <<The Beautiful Country>> par excellence. But what makes Italy beautiful, especially to the eyes of a foreigner?
First, Italy hosts a lot of different landscapes and often in very short distances you can see total diverse sights. A visitor coming from the North will cross the dramatic scenario of the Alpine zone and will meet soon the lakes that lie under the mountains. Then he will cross the central brand, characterized by the wonderful medieval villages, set on the side of a hill or of a mountain, of Tuscany, Marche, Latium, Umbria and Abruzzo, to meet endly the sea, the gulfs and the isles of the South. To this you have to add the vulcanic phenomens of some coastal areas, that add dramacity to their natural beauty.
It is the contrast water-grave to make Italy beautiful, but not only.
You see an atropomorfization of the nature in Italy, that gives it a peaceful beauty.
Longfellow wrote: <<Italy is and always will be the land of the sun and of the song (...) the land of the dreams and of the delicious visions>>.
Shelley wrote about Florence : <<The sight is the most bright and elegant I have ever seen>>.
But the true beauty and also the beauty that has most impact on psychology is the presence of the ruins. Old ruins are everywhere in Italy, also out of the urban centre. The beauty of Italy is, for this reason, also a beauty of the ruins, that attracts and attracted many people, especially those with an high cultural backround, like Goethe, Winkelmann, Shelley, etc.etc.
[To be continued...]
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