Geography and history research on Lazio, the region of central Italy that borders Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo and Molise and has Rome as its capital.
Lazio is an administrative region of central Italy . It overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west and borders Umbria, Tuscany and (for a short stretch) the Marche to the north, Abruzzo and Molise to the east, Campania to the south. It is divided into the provinces of Frosinone, Latina, Rieti, Rome and Viterbo; the regional capital is Rome. The archipelago of the Pontine Islands is administratively included in Lazio (in the province of Latina).
The region derives its name from the ancient Latin people, of whom there is precise historical evidence dating back to the 9th century BC. However, the name Lazio, which fell into disuse and then disappeared with the fall of the Roman Empire, was officially introduced only in 1870 .
Lazio, which extends for 17,227 km2 and has 5,709,263 inhabitants, is among the most densely populated regions of Italy , with an average of 331.13 inhabitants per km2 , more than a third higher than the national average, which is 190. It has well-defined physical borders to the east, where they run on the western side of the central Apennines; with Campania the limit is marked by the final stretch of the Garigliano river, while with Tuscany and Umbria the border does not rest on physical elements.
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Lazio: territory
The regional territory has complex features. Mountains prevail (26.1%) and even more hills (53.9%); only a fifth of the surface is flat. The Apennine section, mostly made up of limestone rocks, is formed by a series of short and massive ridges, between which are interposed deep furrows dug by the erosion of water courses; these are mostly rugged reliefs, with a barren appearance, with frequent rocky outcrops, affected by visible karst phenomena (caves, swallow holes, dolines). There are numerous peaks that exceed 2000 m.
In the extreme north-east stand out the Reatini mountains, dominated by the Terminillo massif (2213 m), and the adjacent group of Laga mountains (Mount Gorzano, 2455 m); along the border with Abruzzo develop the Simbruini mountains (Mount Contento, 2014 m) and, beyond the upper Aniene valley, the Ernici chain (2037 m). Also on the border with Abruzzo rise the Meta mountains (significant is the name of the highest peak, Mount Petroso, 2247 m), to which the Mainarde massif (Mount Cavallo, 2039 m) is connected, now on the border with Molise.
In the western section, Lazio presents another series of reliefs, almost parallel to the Apennines and of the same harsh calcareous nature, but which are generally classified as Anti-Apennine, both for their lower height, around 1000-1500 m, and above all for being separated from the Apennine chain by the wide depression crossed by the river Liri and its tributary Sacco: the Lepini, Ausoni and Aurunci mountains.
The most interesting aspect of the morphology of Lazio is the presence of a vast hilly region of volcanic origin. In stark contrast to the rough Apennine morphology, it is a fertile and pleasant area, represented by four volcanic districts; the highest peaks, on average 600-700 m high, surpassed only by Mount Cimino (1053 m), are formed by the edges of now extinct volcanoes, whose craters are often occupied by lakes. From the border with Tuscany, the Vulsini or Volsini mountains follow one another, around Lake Bolsena, the Cimini mountains with Lake Vico, and the Sabatini mountains around Lake Bracciano.
To the south of the Tiber Valley are the Alban Hills (or Latian Hills), a very complex system, also called the Latian Volcano, now largely demolished, which encloses Lake Albano and Lake Nemi.
The plains of Lazio are essentially coastal; the only internal plain is the depression crossed by the Sacco-Liri. The coast is almost everywhere low, bordered by dunes; its general uniformity is interrupted by some protrusions, including Capo Linaro, near Civitavecchia, the steep Mount Circeo and the promontory of Gaeta, the extreme offshoot of the Aurunci mountains, which delimits the Gulf of Gaeta, divided between Lazio and Campania.
Marshy and malarial for centuries , crossed by rivers whose course changed easily, the coastal plains have been the object, in past centuries, of some reclamation interventions, but only in recent times (in the first decades of this century) have they been definitively subjected to an agricultural development and population plan. To the north is the Maremma Laziale (continuation of the Tuscan one, see Maremma); followed by the Agro Romano, or Roman Countryside, centered on the lower course and delta of the Tiber, and then the Agro Pontino, an ancient marine gulf later filled.
Even from a hydrographic point of view, Lazio does not have unitary characteristics. The region has its main river axis in the Tiber, the river that bathes Rome, but the entire southern section of the region pays tribute to the river Sacco. In Lazio, the Tiber only follows half of its course (205 km out of 405); it enters the region at Orte, after having crossed the entire Umbria. But it is only in Lazio that its flow increases significantly, thanks to the tribute of the Nera and the Aniene; it then flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea with a small delta, after having crossed the Agro Romano. The Sacco (87 km) is instead the main tributary of the Liri, whose course runs between the Ernici mountains and the reliefs of the Anti-Apennines; having joined the Gari, the Liri then takes the name of Garigliano.
The originality of the hydrography of Lazio is given by its volcanic lakes , a unique complex for its vastness and articulation in Italy; Lake Bolsena in particular, the largest lake basin in Lazio (114.5 km2), is also the largest crater lake in Italy. There are also some coastal lakes in the Agro Pontino, ancient stretches of sea closed by sandy cordons, including those of Fogliano and Sabaudia.
Climate and environment
The climatic conditions of the region, which vary much more from area to area than is commonly thought, are influenced, in addition to the geographical position (Lazio is in the centre of the peninsula), by altitude and exposure to the sea. But the mitigating influence of the Tyrrhenian Sea is rapidly reduced by the rise, near the coast, of the mountain ranges arranged parallel to the shoreline, a fact which particularly affects the depressions and valley bottoms.
In the coastal area the climate is typically maritime, mostly without excesses in either summer or winter. In Anzio the winter average is around 9 °C, the summer average around 23 °C; in Rome the summer average increases, around 25 °C (but exceptionally summer highs of 40 °C and winter lows of -8 °C have been reached).
The hills and intermountain valleys have mostly colder winters (lows of -17 °C have even been recorded in Rieti, located at just 405 m above sea level), until they reach the decidedly mountainous climate of the Apennine locations. In the Terminillo ski resort (1614 m) the winter average is -3 °C, the summer average is 13 °C.
A determining factor for rainfall is, in the same way, the exposure of the reliefs to the sea , which capture the humid winds from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Rainfall is less abundant on the coastal plain (about 600-700 mm per year) and in the intermountain basins, and is maximum on the elevated slopes directly exposed to the sea. It generally exceeds 1000 mm per year in the hills and in the Anti-Apennines, and 1500 mm is recorded on the Apennines . The rainiest periods are autumn and spring, with a marked minimum in summer.
Very little remains of the original natural environment in this region of ancient and dense population. Protected areas cover approximately 6% of the territorial surface. The best known is the Circeo National Park, established in 1934 to safeguard a landscape of dunes and marshes that is rare in Italy, but in fact poorly protected, especially in the more recent past. Also noteworthy among the most well-known protected areas are the natural oases of Bosco di Palo, on the coast, and Ninfa, on the Lepini mountains, both characterized by lush Mediterranean scrub (among the species included is for example the dwarf palm), and, more recently established, the Gran Sasso-Monti della Laga National Park (shared with Abruzzo and Marche), with strips of beautiful Apennine forest.
Flora and fauna
The typical plant formations of Lazio are mainly represented by the Mediterranean scrub (mastic, myrtle, wild olive, heather, etc.), mixed with holm oaks and oaks in the hilly areas, by chestnut woods in the high hills and by beech woods at medium mountain altitudes. The mountains of Lazio are extensively occupied by bare pasture. The woods occupy just one fifth of the territorial surface.
Maritime pines have been introduced in some areas of the coastal strip; this is the most interesting area from a naturalistic point of view, especially with regard to the vegetation of marshes and swamps (rushes, reeds), partly safeguarded in the Circeo park.
Of the original fauna , now much reduced also due to the widespread practice of hunting, we can mention wild boars (the wild boar is the emblem of the Circeo park), wolves, wild cats, foxes, beech martens and pine martens; there are relatively numerous species of birds, in particular in the remaining humid areas of the coast (cormorants, flamingos, coots etc.).
Economy of Lazio
If we consider the income of the region, both the overall one, which is one tenth of the national income , and the per capita one, which exceeds thirty million per year, Lazio is not only clearly above the values of the rest of central Italy, but is at the same level as Northern Italy. However, the presence of a regional capital such as Rome, which is at the same time the capital of the state and the most populous Italian metropolis, inevitably determines a strong imbalance within the region.
It can be calculated that 70% of the regional income comes from the city of Rome alone.
This is not the only anomaly that characterizes Lazio. More than three quarters of the income is provided by tertiary activities (no other region has such a preponderant tertiary sector), against a national average of 65%. Agriculture, which was for centuries the main economic sector together with sheep farming, if not the only activity practiced, now has a rather modest role; industry, even if it has registered an undoubted increase in the last decade, limited however to a few areas, is overall weak. Even considering the various productive sectors, one can therefore speak of an unbalanced economic situation.
Agriculture
The characteristics of this sector make Lazio more similar to southern Italy than to the rest of central Italy . Extensive cereal cultivation clearly prevails; however, wheat yields are much lower than the national average, equal to about half the values of Lombardy or Emilia-Romagna.
In addition to cereal cultivation, there is also horticulture, frequently practiced in greenhouses , especially around the capital, whose production is essentially destined for the metropolitan market. Other crops are quite limited, generally without specializations in the territory; exceptions are however the vineyards of the Alban hills, with production of quality wines, and some areas of the Agro Pontino, such as the Fondi plain, for intensive cultivation also in greenhouses.
The reasons for the modest agricultural vocation of the region are to be found in the historical events that have affected it. Starting from the fall of the Roman Empire, the control and systematic regulation of watercourses ceased, so that almost all the plains of Lazio were transformed into malarial swamps, frequented in the winter by transhumant flocks. Left to the neglect of large landowners permanently resident in Rome, even very fertile plains were abandoned: only in the 17th century was there an attempt at reclamation by Pope Sixtus V. But the real, definitive reclamation projects were those started around 1930, which led to the total reclamation of the Agro Pontino (previously not by chance called Paludi Pontine), as well as, to the north, those of the Maremma.
The hydraulic works (drainage, canalizations, etc.) were accompanied by land reform : to a large extent the reclaimed lands, acquired by the state from the previous owners, were distributed to thousands of farmers. Thus, the traditional large estates were replaced by small plots of land under direct management, which was almost unknown in the Lazio area.
However, in the last twenty years the cultivated surface area has decreased significantly overall; while cultivation in the plain areas was intensified, the abandonment of the hilly and mountainous areas, which have always had very low profitability, was becoming significant.
Sheep farming, an ancient activity in Lazio, has almost disappeared, also as a result of land reclamation, where it was conducted with the traditional practice of transhumance, which consisted of the seasonal movement from summer mountain pastures to winter plain pastures; however, sheep farming continues to have a fair amount of importance (the region is in second place, together with Sicily, and is preceded only by Sardinia), suited to the meager pastures of the territory, and to a more limited extent, especially in the south, buffalo farming, with a good production of cheese.
Industry
Industry is the newest and most interesting aspect of the economy of Lazio , a region that in fact lacks manufacturing traditions. Even craftsmanship, from which industries elsewhere developed, has always had very modest roles in this area, tied to the immediate demands of the local market. L
‘industry, however, not only continues to have a fairly marginal role overall, much lower than the national average, but above all it is characterised by being essentially dependent on productive investments from other regions (for example the FIAT car factory in Cassino, in the province of Frosinone) or on public investments (once due to the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, which included the southern part of Lazio among the areas it assisted); furthermore, a limited and in some respects very particular range of sectors has been developed (high technology: electronics and computer science , for example; or the nuclear physics laboratories located in Frascati, in the province of Rome), linked more to the prestige of the capital than to the capacity for real absorption of manpower, while shortages persist in many productions of the basic sectors and also relating to simple consumer goods.
However, the best represented sectors, in addition to high technology, are pharmaceuticals, graphic design and publishing, and paper ; for several decades, however, it can be said that the main industry in Lazio was construction , linked in particular to the imposing, often wild, urbanization of Rome (private homes, large public works), whose population doubled from the post-war period to the Seventies, to almost three million inhabitants. Finally, the Italian film industry is rooted in Rome, even if with alternating phases of success.
Tertiary activities
The development in Lazio of activities globally called service is not surprising , if one considers the presence in the region of the most populous national metropolis, with the rank of capital. Furthermore, in a country still strongly centralized as Italy, the bureaucratic functions and more generally of public employment are very consistent, even those of research, culture or higher level education. For example, Rome has three state universities , and is the seat of public television.
Banking and insurance services are also significantly developed . Another important sector of the regional economy is tourism, where Rome always plays a decisive role, for its extraordinary historical and artistic heritage, but also for its role as a religious center and capital of Christianity, with the Vatican City; among the visitors, the percentage of foreigners is very high. On the other hand, in many centers, art tourism is not adequately valued (in Anagni, for example, in the province of Frosinone, or in Viterbo); on the coast, seaside tourism has developed, but fundamentally local; mountain tourism has its best-equipped station in the already mentioned Terminillo.
The region can, however, count on a famous spa resort , that of Fiuggi, in the province of Frosinone.
As for the communications system , if Lazio lacks a significant port, it does however have, in the international airport of Rome-Fiumicino, the largest air hub in Italy and the fifth in Europe (the other airport in Rome, that of Ciampino, has secondary functions).
Road and rail communication routes radiate outward from the capital; Rome is very well connected to both the North and the South of Italy, but the situation in the internal and mountainous part of the region is not as satisfactory.
The main railway lines are Rome-Florence-Bologna-Milan, Rome-Pisa-Genoa, Rome-Naples-Reggio Calabria and Rome-Ancona. The major roads largely maintain the route of the famous consular roads of ancient Rome: the Aurelia, which runs along the Tyrrhenian Sea to the border with France, the Cassia, which leads to Florence, the Salaria, which passes through Rieti and reaches the Marche etc.; however, traffic now follows motorway routes as soon as possible, and in particular it channels onto the Autostrada del Sole, which leads north to Milan and south to Naples. Rome itself is surrounded by a 68 km ring road ; in addition to the two connections with the Autostrada del Sole, the trans-Apennine Rome-L’Aquila-Teramo and Rome-Civitavecchia branches off from it.
Population and cities
Lazio is the third Italian region in terms of population after Lombardy and Campania, the fourth (after Liguria) in terms of density, but it is the one with the most anomalous distribution. The entire region gravitates towards the capital; three-quarters of the Lazio residents live in the province of Rome (which is also very large: about 5,400 km2, as much as the whole of Liguria). The municipality of Rome is also very large (1,500 km2) and – despite having registered a slow but continuous decrease in the last decade – it still hosts more than half of the regional population. The migratory movement that in the period 1950-1970 poured into Rome, involving not only Lazio but also the whole of central Italy and partly also southern Italy, has had a greater impact on urban expansion than what happened, among the large Italian cities, in Milan or Turin.
The presence of a metropolis like Rome has determined the inevitable flattening of the other provincial capitals, which have a population of 40,000-60,000 inhabitants. Latina, the “capital” of the Agro Pontino, has recently become a discreet center of attraction, thanks to industrial developments (food, mechanical, electronic sectors, etc.) and the intensive agricultural and livestock development of the province.
Due to the disparity between Rome and the other provincial capitals , the overall data on the average density of the region hides enormous differences: 705 inhabitants per km2 are recorded in the province of Rome, 54 in Rieti, 80 in Viterbo. Only Latina exceeds the Italian average, with 220 inhabitants per km2.
However, the recent (and quite relative) depopulation of Rome, which has fallen to 2.8 million inhabitants, has strengthened several nearby municipalities, whose populations often equal, if not exceed, those of the provincial capitals (excluding Latina): this is the case, for example, of Civitavecchia, Fiumicino, Guidonia Montecelio, Tivoli and Velletri.
Overall, the regional demographic trend is slightly positive; among other things, the region hosts a quarter of the foreigners living in Italy, mostly of Asian or African origin. However, the relatively strong Rome-Latina area has increased the gap between northern Lazio, less favored also geographically, and central-southern Lazio, which has always been the heart of the region.
The internal, mountainous areas represent a sort of poor periphery, with the centers perched high up, backward agriculture, and the commuting of labor to the plains. Many small cities in Lazio are famous for their monumental features, such as Anagni, Alatri, Cassino and, to the north, Tuscania, Bolsena, Montefiascone. Tarquinia, near the coast, is one of the major archaeological centers linked to the Etruscan civilization in Italy.
History of Lazio
The Romans used the term Latium to define the territory inhabited by the Latins, between the Tiber, the Circeo and the Prenestini mountains , but, with the advancement of their conquests, they extended the toponym to other areas to the east and south of that original nucleus, including other Italic peoples, such as the Ernici, the Aequi, the Aurunci, the Volsci. This original geographical identity has a historical value as it documents the flourishing of pre-Roman civilizations, attested by archaeologists especially after the first millennium BC, between the end of prehistory and protohistory.
In the first centuries of the historical age the predominant culture was that of the Etruscan people , who established lasting elements of material civilization (the use of the arch in construction, the typology of houses, defensive systems). Etruscan evidence is denser in northern Lazio, while in southern Lazio the first walled city structures date back to the Volsci and the Hernici: these and other Italic peoples of the pre-Roman era established long-range commercial relationships, in particular with the centers of the Mycenaean culture. Etruscan expansionism also encompassed the entire Lazio area and thus gave the unifying imprint to today’s region, with the exception of the existence of Greek colonies on the coast. The rise of Rome, which dates back to the 5th century BC, was accompanied by the extension of its dominion into the surrounding territory, known as Latium vetus , subjugated in different ways, each of which indicated a greater or lesser capacity of resistance of the Latin peoples to the dominion of the Urbe.
However, Roman expansion into the Lazio region dragged on for a long time, if we keep in mind that Veii, the city-state closest to Rome, was taken at the dawn of the 4th century BC, while the fall of Vulci , one of the last Etruscan strongholds, occurred in 265 BC. With the administrative reform of Augustus, Lazio was aggregated to Campania, in Regio I , the central nucleus of the Roman Empire, with which it shared all the events more than other regions and from which both the economic system, favoured by agricultural settlements and by the redevelopment of the marshy areas, and the communications network, based on the many and grandiose public works built by the Romans, benefited.
The crisis of those structures did not occur immediately after the fall of the Western Roman Empire , but rather in the sixth century , with the invasions of the Goths, who destroyed the irrigation equipment, erased the road network, decimated the population, forcing the remaining ones to abandon the countryside to find refuge in the old walled acropolises. The subsequent Lombard and Byzantine dominations had to deal with the power of the bishop of Rome, from whom emanated both a moral authority over the populations and a real sovereignty over the territory, which materialized in a vast patrimony of lands and cities.
This was the original nucleus of the Papal State, whose legal physiognomy became evident at the end of the Lombard kingdom (donation of Sutri in 728) and even more so under the reign of the Franks .
The origins of that galaxy of aristocratic families (Colonna, Annibaldi, Orsini, Caetani, Savelli etc.) can be traced back to the latter . They became holders of large landed properties and were involved in the late Middle Ages in long conflicts with the bishop of Rome and with the free municipalities (Viterbo, Rieti, Tivoli, Terracina etc.), which ended at the end of the 15th century.
Even Rome, with the adventure of Cola di Rienzo , tended to present itself as an antagonist of the papal power, weakened by the Avignon exile (1309-1376). Lazio felt the different positioning of papal authority within the framework of the changed European balances, increasingly conditioned by the great powers, and experienced the echoes of the religious crisis of the early sixteenth century , which resulted in the Protestant Reformation . How much the image of the sacred inviolability of his capital had been tarnished was seen in 1527, when Rome was outraged by a long sacking perpetrated by the lanzichenecchi, Lutheran German troops in the service of the Catholic emperor Charles V. Never before had the political power of the pontiff and his charisma suffered such a collapse, from which they were able to recover thanks to the support of the Catholic powers, Spain and France, and the work of re-establishing Catholicism sanctioned by the Counter-Reformation.
At that point the history of Lazio was permanently integrated with that of the Papal States , in which it formed the two provinces of the Patrimony of St. Peter (with a governor residing in Viterbo), and of Marittima and Campagna (with a governor in Frosinone). What was not fully restored was the economy of the countryside, which maintained that aspect of desolate abandonment, typical of a malarial and marshy region, a land of brigands and poverty, which it would have maintained until our century, although some signs of productive rebirth could be seen in the work of reform attempted at the end of the eighteenth century by Pope Pius VI and then continued during the Napoleonic domination.
Only after the unification of Italy (all of Lazio together with Rome became part of the kingdom in 1870; see Risorgimento) was the region affected by an effective reclamation of the marshes which, relaunched during fascism, led to the full valorization of the agricultural territory and to widespread colonial settlements, some of which, like Latina, were newly founded. Meanwhile, the region had already been a destination for cultural tourism since the end of the eighteenth century, when, archaeological walks having become fashionable, the stops on the tour of the European aristocracy suggested frequent stops in the Lazio territory.
The global importance of Rome , which after unification exercised the dual appeal of being the capital of both a national state and an international religion, gave the region a particular physiognomy, whose capital assumed a decidedly preponderant economic and demographic weight (over 50% of the population resides in Rome).
