INEXHAUSTIBLE ITALY 



279 



groups of peaks, generally separated by 

 high upland valleys, one of whose pla- 

 teaux, the Piano di Cinque Miglia, at a 

 height of 4,298 feet above the sea, is the 

 wintriest and bleakest spot in all Italy. 



This upland region is bordered every- 

 where by lowlands of luxuriantly fertile 

 character, prolific in fruit and verdure 

 and of a genially warm and sunny cli- 

 mate. In central Italy, west of the moun- 

 tains, the valleys of the Arno and Tiber — 

 the only streams of importance — give the 

 keynote to any geographical study of the 

 region. Over on the eastern coast no 

 rivers of importance can exist, because 

 the mountains there approach too close to 

 the sea, though the tortuous, mostly dry 

 beds of the torrcnti scar every height. 



In this connection it is interesting to 

 note that nowhere is the peninsula more 

 than 150 miles wide, and generally not 

 more than 100, while down in Calabria 

 the width dwindles in two places to 35 and 

 20 miles respectively. One of the most 

 inspiring views in the whole length of the 

 country also displays this narrowness 

 strikingly when, on a clear day, from the 

 Gran Sasso, the highest point in the bleak 

 Abruzzi Range, central Italy, at nearly 

 10,000 feet, one may look not only east- 

 ward over the Adriatic to far Dalmatians 

 rocky shores, but also westward over 

 mountain and moor, city and sandy coast, 

 to the dim and misty blue of the Tyrrhe- 

 nian Sea. In volcanic southern Italy, 

 likewise barren of any great waterways, 

 the Apennines break up into groups of 

 hills and peaks, not usually so lofty as 

 farther northward. 



THK RIVERS AND LAKES 



Italy is fairly provided with deep-water 

 seaports — Naples, Genoa, Spezia, the 

 naval base, and Leghorn, on the western 

 coast, and Venice, Ancona, and Brindisi, 

 on the east. The rivers — except the Po — 

 as may have been inferred already, are of 

 little or no importance for navigation — a 

 fact the Romans cleverly disposed of by 

 building those beautiful and enduring 

 military roads which to this day vein the 

 whole length and breadth of the coun- 

 try — though the rapidity of their currents 

 and the flashing, dashing cascades and 



torrenti that come swirling into them 

 make them highly picturesque and de- 

 lightful as features of the landscape. 



What human being with a single spark 

 of soul could fail to expand under the 

 magic of that wonderful chain of lakes 

 along her northern border — Garda, Idro, 

 Iseo, Como, Lugano, Maggiore, Orta ? 

 These remarkable and exquisite sheets of 

 water, formed by the tributaries of one 

 single stream — the Po — sprawl about in 

 tremendously deep valleys among tower- 

 ing hills of solid rock, while scattered 

 among them are shallow little lakes, en- 

 tirely different in both character and 

 aspect. 



Adjectives and imagination alike fail 

 before them, and inarticulate emotion 

 robs the beholder of any power of ex- 

 pression. And what of Trasimeno and 

 Chiusi ? What of those littler lakes which 

 smile up at us from ashen, volcanic cups 

 throughout central and southern Italy? 

 What of Matese, Fusino, Lucrino, 

 Averno — all those many that dimple the 

 pages of history and brighten or glower 

 through the yet more ancient myth and 

 song of bard? 



THE ISEES OP THE WEST 



Beside defining the limits of the coun- 

 try so clearly, Nature also bulwarked the 

 long and tortuous Italian peninsula on 

 the west with a host of rocky defenses in 

 the sapphire waters of the storied Tyrrhe- 

 nian Sea — Gorgona, of the suggestive 

 name; rocky Capraia ; Elba, of Napole- 

 onic fame ; the stony fleet of the little 

 Ponzas ; bold and rugged Ischia, with its 

 castle on a big boulder ; Procida likewise ; 

 humpbacked Capri, where "that hairy old 

 goat," as Suetonius called the Emperor 

 Tiberius, held his revels ; the .Tiolian or 

 Lipari Isles, black monsters that spout 

 fire and sing weird music to terrify the 

 superstitious argonaut ; magnificent Sar- 

 dinia, with its little sister Corsica clinging 

 to its coat-tails a step behind. Both be- 

 long to Italy by every right of Nature — 

 as a bright lad in a Sicilian school told 

 me: "Sardegna, si! But Corsica — no! 

 She belongs to Italy geographically, but 

 politically to France," And the greatest 

 of all these outworks is Sicily. 



