Volume 1

Italy / by K. Mason.

  • Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division
Date:
1944-1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Italy / by K. Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    countries and are not, for example, permitted to work in factories. Care must be taken in the south not to give offence through lack of knowledge of local customs, whereas the northerners are more like inhabitants of other north-west European countries, and can be treated as such. Few descendants of the North African and Spanish invaders have remained in the south. In the north, on the other hand, there are groups of non-Italians, particularly near the French and the old Austro-Hungarian frontiers. After the war of 1914-1918 this foreign population was greatly increased and has given rise to minority problems. These have never been very evident amongst the French -in Piedmont, but the German-speaking Austrians in the High ‘Tirol (Venezia Tridentina) and the Yugoslavs in Venezia Giulia have pre- sented more serious difficulties. These people have suffered summary treatment from the Fascist Government, who, admitting no minority problem, maintain that all inhabitants of Italy are Italians and should therefore speak the language. The large proportion of mountainous area and the seasonal nature of the rainfall make transport in Italy difficult. The effect of the physical features on roads and railways varies in different parts of the ‘country, but, except in the plain of northern Italy, communications are confined by nature to the coastal routes and to a few valley or ridge-lines. Centuries of practice in coping with the precipitous slopes, steep-sided valleys, torrential streams, and recurrent land- slips of their native land may in part explain the reputation that Italians have acquired as civil engineers. Regions The highly distinctive relief of Italy makes it possible to divide the country into a number of regions for the purposes of topographical description. ‘These regions (Fig. 3) are as follows: (1) the Italian Alps, subdivided into the Western Alps, the Central Alps, and the Eastern Alps; (2) Istria; (3) the Northern Plain. ‘These three regions together make up Continental Italy. Peninsular Italy is composed of. (4) the Liguria or Riviera, (5) the Pre-Apennines and (6) Campania along the west coast; (7) the Apennines, subdivided into the Northern Apennines, the Central Apennines, and the Southern Apennines, in the centre; (8) Calabria in the southern ‘toe’ of the country; (9) the Apulian Region, and (10) the Adriatic Coastland along the east coast. (11) Sicily forms a final region, and Sardinia is described in a separate volume.
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