Zara, Spalato, Sebenico, Ragusa and Cattaro,[64] however, contain flourishing colonies of Italians whose commercial enterprise has helped their mother tongue to prevail if not predominate in their region. Outside of these cities, the Italian element, wherever present, is restricted to littoral strips. The Slavs invariably occupy the plateau and the slopes extending seaward.
The Istrian region of predominant Italian speech consists of the western peninsular lowland extending south of Triest[65] to the tip of the promontory beyond Pola.[66] Istrians to whom Italian is vernacular number 147,420 individuals according to the census of 1910. The Slavs of the Karst and terraced sections constituting the rest of the population belong to the Roman faith, but have no other common bond with their Italian countrymen.
Istria is a triangle about 60 miles long with a maximum breadth of 46 miles. It rises from the southwestern coast gradually up to the Dinaric Alps. Owing to its undulating surface and the absence of coastal plains, it may be regarded as a part of this range, jutting out into the sea. On the whole, Istria may be called a Karst land, for three-fourths of its surface consists of Karst-forming limestone and only one-fourth of sandstone and marl. With few exceptions its natural waterways are confined to the sandstone districts. The peninsula is also a transition region between the mild Mediterranean and central European climates. The summers are dry and in autumn heavy rains fall. Almost all the land is productive and 67 per cent of its population live by agriculture and forestry.
Settlement by Slavs of the hills dominating the Adriatic appears to have taken place continuously from the ninth to the seventeenth century. Feudatory chiefs of medieval ages first resorted to this method of developing the uncultivated slopes and highlands of the eastern coast. The Venetian republic and the Austrian government adopted similar measures of colonization. Slavic tribes, hard pressed by their kinsmen or by Tatars from the east, thus found refuge in the mountainous Dalmatian coastland under the ægis of western nations. A traveler taking ship today and sailing from harbor to harbor along the shores of the eastern Adriatic would readily notice the numerical superiority of these descendants of Slavs. They constitute the mass of toilers in every walk of life, and sooner or later probably will erect a political fabric on the foundations of their linguistic preponderance.
Slavic dialects are found in the Friulian sections of eastern Italy as well as in the Abruzzi and Molise regions. The Slavic population of Friuli was estimated in 1851 at 26,676. The census of 1901 records the existence of 5,734 Slavic-speaking families scattered in 16 communi and consisting of about 36,000 individuals.
The Slavs of Italy may be divided into four dialectical groups as follows:[67]
| Natisone group composed of | 17,291 | individuals |
| Torre “ “ “ | 12,986 | “ |
| Judrio “ “ “ | 1,230 | “ |
| Resia “ “ “ | 4,671 | “ |
The Molise group is the remnant of a once extensive Slav colony which had reached the province of Chieti. Round-headedness, accompanied by high stature and blondness, among inhabitants of the communes of Vasto, Cupello, Monteoderisio, Abbateggio, Lanciano, San Giovanni Teatino, Cascanditella and San Vito Chietino betrays Slavic ancestry. And yet Slavic dialects are hardly heard any longer in these country districts. The communes of Acquaviva Collecroce and San Felice Slavo alone boast of some 4,500 inhabitants who speak Slovene.
The Karst or Carso formation on which Slovene life developed is the western section of a long calcareous plateau which extends from the Julian Alps, along the border of the ancient Friulian gulf and attains Balkan ranges. It separates the valley of the Save from the Adriatic. A characteristic aspect is noticeable over all its extent in the thickness of its limestone beds and their deep fissures. Surface water cannot collect and flow for any distance without disappearing into a fissure. The erosion forms of the plateau are of the Karst type and differ radically from those of the average humid climate. Chambers of marvelous dimensions are formed; funnel-shaped sink-holes dot the surface; and the rivers run underground.
The Slovenes settled on the calcareous plateau of Carniola cluster around Laibach and attain the area of German speech on the north, along the Drave between Marburg and Klagenfurth. Eastward they march with Hungarians and the Serbo-Croat group of southern Slavs. Their southern linguistic boundary also coincides with that of the latter. Around Gottschee, however, a zone of German intervenes between Slovene and Croatian dialects. Practically the entire eastern coast of the Gulf of Triest lies in the area of Slovene speech. The group thereby acquires the advantage of direct access to the sea, a fact of no mean importance among the causes that contributed to its survival to the present day in spite of its being surrounded by Germans, Hungarians, Croats and Italians.