Italy: Progress Amidst The Past

only fragments remain of the once great Roman Empire. Around these ancient ruins, a modern Italy is seeking ways to cope with its many problems. It is a nation where some people drive automobiles past towering skyscrapers and others cling to the more leisurely customs of the past. It is a nation where a young man in the industrialized north enjoys modern conveniences and opportunities. While the simple life of a farm family in the south has improved little in several generations. Let's examine some of these extreme conditions and see what the people are doing about them. We'll begin by looking at the country as a whole. Some 50 million people live in this nation, only about 2/3 the size of California. The Italian peninsula is shaped like a high heeled boot with a toe pointing toward the island of Sicily. Sardinia is west of the mainland, south of the French island of Corsica. The northern border of Italy follows the crest of the Italian Alps, and the rich valley of the Po River lies between the Alps and the Aenine range. The Aanines extend the length of the peninsula and into the islands. In the southern area, the combination of a dry summer climate, steep slopes, and poor soils handicaps the farmers. With too many people and not enough fertile land, the problems have multiplied. Pasture land has been ruined by overg grazing and slopes eroded by winter rains. Irrigation and more modern farming methods would improve much of this land. But the general poverty conditions of the dry south limit the funds available for irrigation and other improvement projects. The area around Naples is more fortunate. Naples and the farmlands around it are located on a lava plane created by the volcano Vuvius. The volcanic soils are intensively used for growing vegetables, grapes, and citrus fruit. Inland from this volcanic area is a more typical agricultural area with steep slopes in dry, sandy soil, but enough moisture to grow selected crops. Many Italians utilize the slopes by planting grapes on terraces designed to hold rainwater and keep the soil from washing downhill. In this area, a farmer named Antonio Villano chats with a neighbor. Antonio is fortunate because he can grow crops. Yet, the land must feed so many people that each farm is very small. Antonio is very aware of the problems confronting the southern farmer. >> I use every bit of my land, growing potatoes in the ground, grapes and beans under the vines and nuts and fruits under the trees. On this small amount of land, I can grow enough to feed of my family and to trade for a few necessities, but not enough to sell for money to buy far machinery and luxuries for the house. at our house. Now, my wife's sister will be going up to wake the children, and my wife will already have begun a day of hard work. She won't have far to go to do the milking because the cow is kept in one of the lower rooms of the house. We have no pastures where the fence for these valuable animals. Like many Italians, I have a large family to support. three daughters and a son. For Angelo, the smaller farm offers no future. Each morning, he and a friend wait for the bus which takes them to the technical school in Naples. Their hope for the future is to find steady jobs in a factory. My younger daughters are nicely dressed in clothes the women have sewn for them. Each morning, the girls walk more than two miles to the village school. All of the children are supposed to attend the school until they are 14 years of age. At home, my 15year-old is making her wardrobe, preparing for the day when some young men may ask her to marry. Women, like her aunt, who do not marry, often spend their lives in the homes of relatives. She is one more to feed, but she works very hard and earns her way. The women bake our bread in a wood burning oven. It takes four to 5 hours in the big oven, but they can bake a week's supply at a time. And we process balls of a cheese from our milk and sides of a bacon from the hogs we keep. Italians can be grateful for the grape vines and olive trees. Both have deeper roots that help them survive our driest summers. From the grapes, we make our own wine. Olives are crushed for their oil, which is used as a cooking fat in preparing many of our foods. The girls come home at noon today because it is Wednesday and there is no school on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. It has been a morning of hard work but a very satisfying one. We have grown and prepared the food that we eat. We drink the juice of our own grapes. And we have bread fresh from our own oven. Life on this farm is much the same as it was when my father owned it before me. We may never be any more prosperous than we are now, but we are one of the lucky families who have some of the better land enough to sustain us. The city of Naples is crowded with people whom the land will not support and for whom there have not been enough jobs. To meet this problem, the government is encouraging the building of more industry in the south. Nuclear power stations may solve the problem of providing electricity to dry areas that lack water power and coal. And new superighways are shortening transportation time between the south and other areas, thus making southern ports more convenient and making it possible to increase their shipping trade. But meantime, many from the southern region are leaving to find work in other countries or they are moving from the south toward the more prosperous north. A boy like Angelo Villiano may hope for a more prosperous future in the south, but in northern Italy, a well-dressed young man named John Lucente already enjoys much of that prosperity. John lives in Milan, the largest city in the Po River Valley. Milan is second only to Rome in size and second to no Italian city in the scope of its commerce and industry. At the University of Milan, John Lucente is studying for a business career. I would not care to live in southern Italy. Here in the north, there is more opportunity for young people. Riding home on my motor scooter, I am very aware of the hustle and vitality of the city. Most of these scooters and cars are manufactured in this area. We prefer small vehicles because they use less fuel. Petroleum has to be imported and is expensive. Our newer buildings are as modern as any in the world. Many here are employed as office workers. Other young people have found a place in our busy commercial city. And someday I shall do the same. John lives in one of the many modern apartment buildings in a new section of the city. For young men like him, northern Italy is a progressive area where one may find many opportunities. Why does the north have these advantages? Climate is one reason. Cooler masses of air bring lower temperatures and more rainfall into the Po Valley. So, the area has the temperature and rainfall more suitable to the growth of corn and other crops. For centuries, the melting snows of the Alps have fed the Po River and its tributaries. These rivers have carried soil down from the mountains and deposited this aluvium in the Po Valley. In this fertile soil, a variety of vegetable and fruit crops grow well. In addition, a system of irrigation canals provides ample water for those areas of the valley that receive only about 10 in of rainfall in the summer. Irrigation and use of chemical sprays enable rice growers to produce abundant crops on flooded fields. Water from the Alps also aids industry brought down through pipes to hydroelect electric plants. It helps generate electricity from numerous substations. This current is transmitted to industries throughout the valley. Within the industrial triangle formed by Turin, Genoa and Milan, a major share of Italy's manufactured goods are produced and shipped. The sprawling rooftops of an automotive plant in Turan cover many acres. These northern metal industries benefit from Italy's membership in the European coal and steel community which enables it to import coal that does not have itself duty-free from Germany. Electricity enables the factories in Turan to use automation and modern methods in the production of cars and trucks. Many of the finished products will be transported to Genova for exporting. Trade goods have been passing through the port of Genoa since pre- Roman times. In older sections of the city, the shadowed side streets have changed little since the time Columbus lived here. Lanes too narrow for the city's modern traffic are crowded between old buildings. Because it is so overcrowded, living conditions for many have not kept pace with the city's commercial growth. For Genoa does provide the industrial triangle with excellent harbor facilities served by a railroad system that operates efficiently throughout the Po Valley. New highways are built right over the old city, providing unobstructed routes from the seapport to inland industries. Milan has numerous metal products factories that require a large workforce. There are also chemical industries which use natural gas as a fuel source for the development of synthetics and other products and textile mills where natural and synthetic fibers are made into fabrics. Having jobs and income enables northern Italians to buy more of the goods their nation produces. All of Italy will benefit when ways are found to make other areas of the country as prosperous as the north. Prospects are favorable. Italy's people are its greatest asset. They work hard and for long hours. They are an expressive people with an affection for their country. And each has his opinion about what is best for it. They are all aware that a major asset not to be overlooked is Italy's appeal for the sightseer. The beautiful Lake District in the north attracts many visitors, but tourism is also an important source of income for other areas. Indeed, the vacationer might find it hard to decide whether to visit the lakes or the Riviera, Venice, Pisa, Florence, or Rome. The Riviera offers colorful resorts and the sunny Mediterranean coast, while Venice, the city on the water, has preserved its historic beauty and provides its visitors with a leisurely sojourn into the past. St. Mark's Square in Venice is visited by thousands of tourists every week. It is to Venice what the cathedral with its famous leaning tower is to Pisa. The tower has stood this way for centuries, looking as if it might fall at any time. Another church dome looks down upon the medieval city of Florence. Tourists find the city is rich in art treasures. The visitor can see masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and other Italian artists. Many of these works are sculptured out of Kurara marble. This marble is queried from the mountains near the city of Kurrara, a few miles north of Florence. Since ancient times, white and colored marble from this area has been used throughout the world. These new buildings in Rome owe much of their beauty to Kurara marble. In the use of marble and statuary, Rome acknowledges its debt to the past. The past is important to this modern city. Some 15 million tourists a year visit Rome. They come to the city they have read about in history books to visit the ancient coliseum where gladiators once fought in mortal combat and to see the fountains and picturesque reminders of old Rome. For this city along the banks of the Tyber was once the most powerful on earth. A few fragments are all that now remain of the forum. But from here Roman senators ruled a vast empire. So great was the Roman influence that today 300 million of the world's people speak languages derived from Latin, the language of the Romans. Catholicism is another link between Rome and many parts of the world. Vatican City, center of the Roman Catholic Church, is an independent state within the walls of the Italian capital. The Vatican is the smallest nation in the world, about a sixth of a square mile in size, and it is built around the world's largest cathedral, St. Peter's. The enormous dome was designed by Michelangelo, and his works of art, such as the Pieta, adorn the interior, along with many great masterpieces by other artists of the Renaissance period. Italy is still a land of the past and the present where extreme contrasts in living conditions exist. In the industrialized north, men as young as John Lucenti may afford automobiles and other luxuries. While in the south, Antonio Villiano is fortunate in being able to feed his family, but has had little chance to improve their level of living. But from their past, the people have inherited traditions of art and inventiveness which they are applying to present- day needs. They are becoming aware that the entire nation will benefit by supporting irrigation and land reform in the dry south. In the nation as a whole, they are expanding industry to create more job opportunities, building more apartments to relieve crowded conditions in the old cities, seeking additional ways to increase their world trade and encouraging tourism with modern airport facilities and accommodations. Already revitalized southern cities such as Naples are approaching the day when they will compete equally with the commercial cities of the north. As Italy amidst the reminders of its past is finding ways to meet the problems of today and of the future.