Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

THE N ORTH ERN LOW LANDS
namely paper at Tolmezzo and furniture at Sutrio. Small quantities o f coal
are mined at Oraro and lead-zinc at Cave del Predd. The development o f
hydro-electric power notably at Bards, Sauris and Cavazzo, has done little to
provide permanent employment, and emigration, much o f it temporary, is an
old-established practice. There are several very small German-speaking communities
in Carnia (Sauris, Sappada); tradition has it that they settled here as
miners in the Middle Ages.
I I
T H E N O R T H E R N L O W L A N D S
The dominance o f the North Italian Lowlands in the economy o f the country is
one of the commonplaces o f Italian geography; it was already apparent in classical
times, reasserted itself strongly in the Middle Ages, and has become increasingly
obvious ever since, particularly over the last himdred years. In large measure the
relative superiority o f the area can be explained in terms o f its natmal endowment,
especially the character o f its relief, soils, climate and water supplies;
other advantages have been its easy access to the Mediterranean and its pivotal
position in relation to central and western Europe which have favoured not only
commerce but the introduction o f new ideas and enterprising attitudes, whether
they had their source in the classical and medieval Mediterranean world or in
modern industrialized northern Europe. But there was nothing automatic about
the plain’s climb to dominance; in fact its history is studded with setbacks, most
obviously during the long night following the eclipse o f Rome and during the
stagnation which attended Spanish political control. The opportunities had to be
recognized and exploited and in no aspect is this more apparent than in the
control of water, which has always been fundamental to the continued development
of the area and whose achievement represents the patient labour o f a
hundred generations.
The Valle Padana is essentially the work of rivers and it provides convincing
evidence o f the extent to which the forces o f erosion have succeeded in demolishing
the Alps and the Apennines.^ In Pliocene times the Po syncline was occupied
by a continuation o f the Adriatic which communicated with the Ligurian Sea
through several narrow channels in what are now the Ligiuian Apennines.
Although the Pliocene deposits are mainly marine their immense thickness is
none the less a reflexion o f the activity o f the Alpine and Apennine rivers; beneath
Vercelli they extend from — 2191m to — 680m; in the Lomellina the corresponding
depths are — 3000 and — 1100 while at Codigoro they are reached at
— 2345m (Gabert). With the passing o f the Pliocene the syncline shared in the
uplift of the mountains on either side and the rivers, their energies renewed, continued
the work o f filling in even though their load was now increasingly spread
over the former sea bed; the Quaternary sediments in Lomellina exceed 1200m
* See P. Gabert: ‘Une tentative d’évaluation du travail d’érosion sur les massifs montagneux
qui dominent la plaine du Pô’, Revue de Géographie Alpine, i960.
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