Several of the towns at the base of the Alps occupy sites marked out for them by nature. Such are the towns at the mouth of the valleys or defiles, which were places of defence as well as staples of commerce. Ariminum, the modern Rimini, at the southern extremity of the great plain of the Po, was one of these, for during the reign of the Roman it defended the narrow littoral passage between the Adriatic and the Apennines. The Flaminian Road there reached the sea, the Emilian Road thence departed for the north-west, as did also the littoral road of Ravenna. When Rome had ceased to be the capital of the world, and Italy was divided into small hostile states, the towns in the southern part of the plain, or near the passes over the Po, such as Ferrara and Bologna, retained their strategical importance. Piacenza, which defends the passage of the Po between Piemont and Emilia, remains a first-rate fortress to the present day; Alessandria, near the confluence of Tanaro and Bormida, and in a plain famous for many a bloody battle, was likewise destined to become a formidable fortress, though derisively called a “city of straw.” Every valley debouching from France or Austria was locked at its mouth by a strong fort; but most of these places, such as Vinadio, Pinerolo, Fenestrella, and Susa, have become untenable, owing to the range of modern artillery.

The defences of the road over the Brenner, ever since the downfall of the Roman empire, had to be looked to most carefully, for the plain between the Mincio and the Adige, to the south of the Lake of Garda, is the least-protected part of Italy from a military point of view. History has proved this. Well might the peaceable inhabitants of the plain consecrate this Alpine road to the gods, and intrust its defence to the neighbouring tribes. But the northern barbarians were not to be stopped by altars; and many a time they swept down it like an avalanche, pillaging the towns and massacring the inhabitants. No spot on the earth’s surface has been so frequently saturated with human blood. Most of the battles for the possession of Italy, down to our own days, were fought near the mouth of the upper valley of the Adige. Hardly a town or a village of this small district but {223} has gained a mournful notoriety in the dark pages of human history. It is there we must seek for the battle-fields of Castiglione, Lonato, Rivoli, Solferino, and Custozza. When the Austrians held Lombardy and Venice, they took care to protect this district by the four fortresses known as the Quadrilateral (Verona, Peschiera, Mantua, and Legnago) and other works. These constituted the “key of the house,” of which Italy has now repossessed herself.

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Fig. 74.—MOUTH OF THE ADIGE VALLEY.

From the Austrian Staff Map. Scale 1 : 397,000.

The configuration of the country which rendered these defiles of the Alps of importance strategically, likewise insured their commercial importance. The fortresses were placed there to defend the passes, the commercial entrepôts to intercept the trade. The rank of these places of commerce depends essentially upon the number and the importance of the roads which converge upon them. Turin, upon which converge all the Alpine roads from Mont Blanc to the Apennines, naturally became one of the vital points of European commerce. Milan, to which lead the seven great Alpine routes of the Simplon, the Gotthard, the Bernardino, the Splügen, the Julier, the Maloya, and the Stelvio, was marked out by nature as a commercial emporium. Bologna, too, which was separated by the swamps of the Po from the Alpine passes, has risen into importance since railways have joined it to Vienna, Paris, Marseilles, and Naples. {224}

The valley of the Po would never have attained its importance in the history of Europe unless roads had been constructed for traversing the obstructive mountains which surround it on all sides except towards the east, where it opens out upon the Adriatic. No other district of Europe is so completely hemmed in by natural obstacles as is this, but the construction of carriage roads and railways has converted Northern Italy into one of the great centres of European commerce. Venice gives it the command of the Adriatic, the Apennine railways connect it with Genoa, Savona, the Gulf of Spezia, and the Tyrrhenian, and it thus commands the two seas which wash the shores of Italy. Other railways cross the Alps, and put it into communication with France and Germany. This central position, joined to the natural fertility of the country, has converted Northern Italy into one of the most flourishing portions of Europe. Human hands have conquered original geographical disadvantages, and the true centre of Italy is in the ancient Cisalpine Gaul, and not at Rome. Had the Italians been guided in the choice of their capital by actual importance, and not by historical tradition, they would have chosen one of the great cities of their northern plain.

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Fig. 75.—THE PASSAGES OVER THE ALPS.