Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
temperature and salinity are conducive to the growth o f plankton and other fish
foods in great abundance. In consequence the demand for fish cannot be met
from home waters and in recent years the traditional imports o f dried and salted
herring and cod have been supplemented by more expensive pre-packed frozen
fish. Although fishing on a full-time or part-time basis helps to provide a living
for tens o f thousands o f Italians the value o f the catch is normally only about onefifth
o f that o f the U K . There is no concentration of activity in highly specialized
ports like Grimsby or Bergen with their elaborate processing facilities j each port
serves a limited hinterland from hmited fishing grounds. The vast majority of
the boats in use have a restricted range and httle accommodation for storage or
the crew •, indeed about a third o f the boats in use are without engines. A t present
only a handful o f deep-sea trawlers, most o f them based on Leghorn, operate
outside the Mediterranean waters. The unsatisfactory state o f the industry and
the need for large-scale investment have prompted various government schemes
(most recently the so-called Blue Plan) aimed at the provision o f better processing
facihties ashore and o f more modern vessels capable o f a much greater range. The
waters o f the Mediterranean are overfished and at the best o f times provide no
shoals on the scale encountered in the Atlantic and North Sea; the normal
rewards o f a night’s fishing are a mixed catch o f sardines, mackerel, anchovies,
dentex and mullet; apart from tunny the swordfish is the biggest fish landed.
Oysters, mussels, prawns, shrimps and cuttlefish abound in the shallower waters
and provide the ingredients for mixed fries and fish soups rivalling those o f
Marseilles. The majority o f the tunny landed is caught in Sardinian and Sicilian
waters although the processing is largely in the hands o f Ligurian concerns. The
sponges o f the Messina Straits and Lampedusa and the corals o f Sardinia are o f
only minor importance. Eels are a speciality o f the Po and its tributaries, and
among fresh-water fish the trout o f Garda is perhaps the best known.
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
RAILWAYS. Out o f a network totalling 21,143 km (U K 29,500 km), 16,380 km
are operated by the state and the rest by concessionaires. Almost all the state
mileage is o f standard gauge, roughly half is electrified and over a quarter consists
o f double track. O f the private lines totalling 4763 km half the mileage is o f
standard gauge and about one-third is electrified. The overall density is about
two-thirds o f that o f the United Kingdom and somewhat less than that of
France; the much closer network in the North compared with that o f the rest o f
the coimtry is yet another indication o f that area’s relative prosperity. Quite
apart from the difficulty o f much o f the terrain, which made railways difficult to
build and makes them expensive to maintain, the Italian administration is faced
with most o f the economic and social problems plaguing operators elsewhere in
Europe. Italy lacks the heavy mineral traffic which makes up such a large proportion
o f British railway freight and this goes some way to explaining why in recent
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