

Photograph by A. W. Cutler 

 PEASANTS OF SOUTHERN ITALY 



The donkey seizes the opportunity to snatch a few moments' slumber 



The historic seas enfold it to south, east, 

 and west. On the north the terrific Alps 

 sweep around in a great semicircle from 

 Mediterranean to Adriatic, closing- the 

 circuit. 



To be sure, from the time of Augustus 

 the boundary of each side of northern 

 Italy has been juggled, now to the east, 

 now to the west, by politics ; but the 

 physical boundary is still definitely there. 

 So thoroughly did the ancient chroniclers 

 recognize these natural limits that long- 

 before the name Italy had any political 

 significance or entity the writers applied 

 it to the country thus inclosed. The pen- 

 insula, with its tremendous Apennine 

 backbone, makes a huge boot which 

 thrusts out practically into the center of 

 the great Midland Sea. 



Necessarily, then, Italy was exposed to 

 attack and invasion from three sides. In- 

 deed, it was the invading, or rather colon- 

 izing, Creek who combined with the ab- 

 origine to form the population that 

 stocked the peninsula. Taken in a smaller 



way, geographical site or position exer- 

 cised no less distinct an effect upon some 

 of the foremost Italian cities ; and in 

 shaping their affairs and men it also in- 

 fluenced the entire world. 



NATURAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTRY 



Italy is generally regarded as lying in 

 three parts — northern, central, and south- 

 ern. Nature has set no boundary between 

 central and southern Italy ; but from the 

 southernmost point of the Alps, at the 

 French frontier, the Apennines swing 

 across to the eastward, leaving in the arc 

 they cut a huge U-shaped basin, drained 

 by the river Po and its tributaries, open 

 to the Adriatic. 



After forming this basin — northern 

 Italy — the Apennines sweep southward in 

 a rugged backbone which determines the 

 whole internal geography of the country 

 as definitely as the Alps do its outline 

 northward. The Apennines are not, how- 

 ever, merely a backbone, but a broad 

 mass with several minor ranges and 



-'74 



