Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

R E G IO N A L G EO G RAPH Y
The regional treatment o f a country is largely a matter o f convenience and a too
rigid application o f purely physical criteria is apt to result in distortion. On the
basis of structure and relief the Italian Alps form one major region, but plain and
mountain are so closely connected by their common interests in Alpine routeways
and in water and hydro-electric supplies that it might be argued that the
central Alps and the adjoining Lombardy plain should be treated together rather
than separately as parts o f the Alpine and Padane major regions. Similarly, if
climate is taken as the criterion o f regional division, Liguria falls within the
Mediterranean zone, but its industrial and commercial associations link it firmly
with the North. Furthermore, the history of Italy as a political unit is so recent
that feeling for the traditional historical divisions cannot be ignored. People still
tend to think o f themselves (and others) as Piedmontese, Calabrians, Venetians
or Sicilians, and this is understandable in a country where the majority rarely
leaves its home district and where the industrial development has still not yet
brought about the internal mobility experienced in England over the last himdred
years. The present administrative system recognizes this fact by bracketing the
provinces (roughly the size o f French departments and named after the principal
town) into regions which correspond broadly with ancient historical divisions.
Indeed the 1948 constitution granted autonomous status to Sicily, Sardinia, the
Valle d’Aosta and the Trentino-Alto Adige, and although elsewhere the regione
has little administrative force, there is a strong current o f opinion in favour of
further regional devolution, and a beginning has been made recently with
Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Except where there is a clearly recognizable minority
whose interests are in need o f protection, the wisdom o f this departure may be
questioned; but for the geographer in search o f a satisfactory regional division
there is much to be said for tempering devotion to the conventional criteria o f
regional delimitation (relief, structure, climate, etc.) with a respect for ancient
associations and traditional sentiments, even though the units which emerge may
lack a satisfactory peripheral definition in terms o f physical features. Indeed, this
weakness is almost unavoidable in a country where the urban traditions are so
strong that the historical region is often the projection o f the dominating influence
o f an ancient city into its immediate surroundings; Florence and Milan,
Venice and Naples are among the more obvious examples.
The customary division o f the mainland into three major regions, the North,
the Centre, and the South, will be adopted here. The North is given unity by the
sweep o f the Alps and the great plain they enclose; by its close continental connections
with central and western Europe; by the productivity o f its agriculture
and industry which furnish, by Italian standards, a high standard o f living; and
by the consciousness o f its people o f being Northerners. For reasons mentioned
above the broad climatic imity o f the area is violated by the inclusion o f Liguria.
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