From Etruscans and Romans to Modern Times - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 48

5. From Etruscans and Romans to Modern Times
A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of inferiority.
— Samuel Johnson [41]
Do you know the land where the lemon trees bloom?
— Goethe [42]
Italy has a special gift for the wise traveler: journeys through time to the sites and sights of
Rome of the Caesars, the Vatican of the Borgias, and Florence of the Medici, not to men-
tion Venice and Urbino of the high Renaissance. Italy also instructs the wise traveler on how
geography and religion shape habits of the heart.
ITALY'S GEOGRAPHY
The peninsula of Italy swings south from the Alps for about 700 miles. Consisting of eight
distinct regions, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, it is covered by mountains and
shaped like a high-heeled, eighteenth-century cavalry boot. It extends south from the Ger-
manic Alps to the southern plains and into the Mediterranean, a short sail to Muslim Africa.
Geography has given Italy its character and its history.
Italy is the most perfect of peninsulas. The alpine barrier to the north is seamless. The
plain of the Po (Valley) forms a rich natural larder. The long, craggy 'leg and toe' shel-
ter a large number of fertile, impregnable valleys with ready access to the sea. Some of
these Italian localities have been rich and extravert; one of them, Rome, gave rise to the
largest empire of the ancient world. But after Rome's decline, they could so defend their
independence that Italy was not united again for 2,000 years. [43]