Tourist Pathways Through the Province of Rome [antikvár]

Forza del Lazio quanta sei soave ! ,, This is the second edition o f Tourist Patways through the Province of Rome"'' that the Ente Provinciale per il Turismo, headed by the Marquis Raffaele Travaglini del Vergante di Santa Rita, published for the first time in 1960 and it is the work of Bruno Palma, editor of'"Il Tempo", a learned young man very keen on Roman aspects and one of the finest newspapermen of the post-war period. In the first edition of the "Itinerari", Bruno Palma has been remarkably successful in carrying out the far from easy task assigned to him. He has synthesized, in this small book, the fascinating and unusual aspects of the little towns and villages of the Roman Province, the magnificent and proud-hearted region that D'Annunzio apostrophized in the line, " Forza del Lazio quanta sei soave!" ^ and again as ""the most brooding, unique of terrestrial beauties beneath the sun". Naturally in this second edition are considered all the changes that took place in the last few years: the new roads recently opened to the traffic, the improvements and the rectifications to the old ones, the new panoramas offered to the tourists'" pleasure, the archaeological findings, the main restorations to monuments and churches {unfortunately not as many as needed due lack of funds), the new touristic destinations etc. All these new aspects suggested the necessity of a re-edition of this successful monography which properly couples with the "Itinerari Romani" by Ettore della Riccia, recently republished by E.P.T. The monography, kept unabridged in the primary structure, particularly dwells on a special chapter about the very modern highway brightly called "of the sun" and on the touristic possibilities offered to reach interesting spots of the Roman Province. For each locality, directly and indirectly reachable by this highway, suitable indications are provided. Therefore, since I am convinced of the usefulness of the Roman E.P.T.'s publication, rather than dwelling any longer on its presentation, I shall go on briefly and within the limits permissible for an introduction, to speak of 1 Oh Latium, how irresitibly sweet is thy spell! THE HIGHWAY OF THE SUN The youngest Italian road, is - indeed - the most convenient and the most beautiful too. It is not connected, by the layout or the name, to ancient times glories like the famous consular roads of which we shall speak in the following chapters; it is instead, linked with the technique of nowadays men for the daring structures of its bridges, viaducts, galleries, appropriate bending radii and studied slopes. These men, thoughtful and concerned about the explosion of one of the most important phenomena of our generation - the motorization - had to give up the gloriojjs, historical, but sometimes winding and inadequate traditional ways in order to exploit the others - and in particular the Highway of the Sun -with more functional principles. Therefore, without taking away from the first ones their history and their suggestion, here is rising the other, the new, the modern backbone of the Italian traific, from North to South, from Milan to Rome and Naples, with its overall length of 755 kilometres. Started in September 1956 and undertaken by the Istituto per la Rico-struzione Industríale - I.R.I. - it has been gradually opened to the traffic as soon as distances of appreciable length were completed, until being finished and entirely available in October 1964. The Highway of the Sun also crosses the Roman province, detecting suggestive landscapes unknown before its construction as well as extending the possibilities of connection among the various countries of the Roman hinterland. Quite a few localities of the province, in fact, can be reached by the Highway of the Sun too, but, of course, such places are always reachable by the traditional itineraries due to their vicinity to the city. As regards to the town, the highway is practically distinguished in two sections: the Northern one, to Florence and Milan, crosses the Roman province territory up to a few kilometres before Magliano Sabina; the Southern one, to Naples, runs through the province of Rome up to a few kilometres after Colleferro. As far as the finking between the two sections is concerned, who rather avoids the town crossing, can make it following the Grande Raccordo Anulare (big ring-like connection), which surrounds the centre of the town at a short kilometric distance from it. 13