Apennines Sentence Examples

By far the larger portion of Northern Italy is occupied by the basin of the Po, which comprises the whole of the broad plain extending from the foot of the Apennines to that of the Alps, together with the valleys and slopes on both sides of it.

In this part the Apennines are separated from the sea, distant about 30 m.

The Roman district, the largest of the four, extends from the hills of Albano to the frontier of Tuscany, and from the lower slopes of the Apennines to the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Parma, one of the finest cities of northern Italy, lies in a fertile tract of the Lombard plain, within view of the Alps and sheltered by the Apennines, 170 ft.

One chief result of the manner in which the Apennines traverse Italy from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic is the marked division between Northern Italy, including the region north of the Apennines and extending thence to the foot of the Alps, and the central and more southerly portions of the peninsula.

This is most clearly marked on the side of the Apennines, where the great Aemilian Way, which has been the high road from the time of the Romans to our own, preserves an unbroken straight line from Rimini to Piacenza, a distance of more than 150 m., during which the underfalls of the mountains continually approach it on the left, without once crossing the line of road.

The Savio is the only other stream of any importance which has always flowed directly into the Adriatic from this side of the Tuscan Apennines.

The narrow strip of coast-land between the Maritime Alps, the Apennines and the sea—called in ancient times Liguria, and now known as the Riviera of Genoa—is throughout its extent, from Nice to Genoa on the one side, and from Genoa to Spezia on the other, almost wholly mountainous.

The Apennines (q.v.), as has been already mentioned, here traverse the whole breadth of Italy, cutting off the peninsula properly so termed from the broader mass of Northern Italy by a continuous barrier of considerable breadth, though of far inferior elevation to that of the Alps The Ligurian Apennines may be considered as taking their rise in the neighborhood of Savona, where a pass of very moderate elevation connects them with the Maritime Alps, of which they are in fact only a continuation.

This is the highest point in the northern Apennines, and belongs to a group of summits of nearly equal altitude; the range which is continued thence between Tuscany and what are now known as the Emilian provinces presents a continuous ridge from the mountains at the head of the Val di Mugello (due north of Florence) to the point where they are traversed by the celebrated Furlo Pass.

Throughout this tract the Apennines are generally covered with extensive forests of chestnut, oak and beech; while their upper slopes afford admirable pasturage.

The geography of Central Italy is almost wholly determined by the Apennines, which traverse it in a direction from about north-north-east to south-south-west, almost precisely parallel to that of the coast of the Adriatic from Rimini to Pescara.

In this part of the range almost all the highest points of the Apennines are found.

Proceeding thence southwards, we find in succession the Monte Vettore (8128 ft.), the Pizzo di Sevo (7945 ft.), and the two great mountain masses of the Monte Corno, commonly called the Gran Sasso d'Italia, the most lofty of all the Apennines, attaining to a height of 9560 ft., and the Monte della Maiella, its highest summit measuring 9170 ft.

But the Apennines of Central Italy, instead of presenting, like the Alps and the northern Apennines, a definite central ridge, with transverse valleys leading down from it on both sides, in reality constitute a mountain mass of very considerable breadth, composed of a number of minor ranges and groups of mountains, which preserve a generally parallel direction, and are separated by upland valleys, some of them of considerable extent as well as considerable elevation above the sea.

This constitution of the great mass of the central Apennines has in all ages exercised an important influence upon the character of this portion of Italy, which may be considered as divided by nature into two great regions, a cold and barren upland country, bordered on both sides by rich and fertile tracts, enjoying a warm but temperate climate.

The northern part of Tuscany is indeed occupied to a considerable extent by the underfalls and offshoots of the Apennines, which, besides the slopes and spurs of the main range that constitutes its northern frontier towards the plain of the Po, throw off several outlying ranges or groups.

South of Palestrina again, the main mass of the Apennines throws off another lateral mass, known in ancient times as the Volscian mountains (now called the Monti Lepini), separated from the central ranges by the broad valley of the Sacco, a tributary of the Liri (Liris) or Garigliano, and forming a large and rugged mountain mass, nearly 5000 ft.

Besides these offshoots of the Apennines there are in this part of Central Italy several detached mountains, rising almost like islands on the seashore, of which the two most remarkable are the Monte Argentaro on the coast of Tuscany near Orbetello (2087 ft.) and the Monte Circello (1771 ft.) at the angle of the Pontine Marshes, by the whole breadth of which it is separated from the Volscian Apennines.

The Arno, which has its source in the Monte Falterona, one of the most elevated summits of the main chain of the Tuscan Apennines, flows nearly south till in the neighborhood of Arezzo it turns abruptly north-west, and pursues that course as far as Pontassieve, where it again makes a sudden bend to the west, and pursues a westerly course thence to the sea, passing through Florence and Pisa.

The Tiber, a much more important river than the Arno, and the largest in Italy with the exception of the Po, rises in the Apennines, about 20 m.

The great central mass of the Apennines, which has held its course throughout Central Italy, with a general direction from north-west to south-east, may be considered as continued in the same direction for about 100 m.

This mountainous tract, which has an average breadth of from 50 to 60 m., is bounded west by the plain of Campania, now called the Terra di Lavoro, and east by the much broader and more extensive tract of Apulia or Puglia, composed partly of level plains, but for the most part of undulating downs, contrasting strongly with the mountain ranges of the Apennines, which rise abruptly above them.

On the east side in like manner the Monte Gargano (3465 ft.), a detached limestone mass which projects in a bold spur-like promontory into the Adriatic, forming the only break in the otherwise uniform coast-line of Italy on that sea, though separated from the great body of the Apennines by a considerable interval of low country, may be considered as merely an outlier from the central mass.

From the neighborhood of Potenza, the main ridge of the Apennines is continued by the Monti della Maddalena in a direction nearly due south, so that it approaches within a short distance of the Gulf of Policastro, whence it is carried on as far as the Monte Pollino, the last of the lofty summits of the Apennine chain, which exceeds 7000 ft.

While the rugged and mountainous district of Calabria, extending nearly due south for a distance of more than 150 m., thus derives its character and configuration almost wholly from the range of the Apennines, the long spur-like promontory which projects towards the east to Brindisi and Otranto is merely a continuation of the low tract of Apulia, with a dry calcareous soil of Tertiary origin.

The Monte Volture, which rises in the neighborhood of Melfi and Venosa to 4357 ft., is of volcanic origin, and in great measure detached from the adjoining mass of the Apennines.

The Liri (Liris) or Garigliano, which has its source in the central Apennines above Sora, not far from Lake Fucino, and enters the Gulf of Gaeta about 10 m.

Below this the watershed of the Apennines is too near to the sea on that side to allow the formation of any large streams. Hence the rivers that flow in the opposite direction into the Adriatic and the Gulf of Taranto have much longer courses, though all partake of the character of mountain torrents, rushing down with great violence in winter and after storms, but dwindling in the summer into scanty streams, which hold a winding and sluggish course through the great plains of Apulia.

All the other lakes of Central Italy, which are scattered through the volcanic districts west of the Apennines, are of an entirely difierent formation, and occupy deep cup-shaped hollows, which have undoubtedly at one time formed the craters of extinct volcanoes.

The geology of Italy is mainly dependent upon that of the Apennines (q.v.).

The Apulian volcanic formation consists of the great mass of Monte Volture, which rises at the west end of the plains of Apulia, on the frontier of Basilicata, and is surrounded by the Apennines on its south-west and north-west sides.

Thus the great plain of northern Italy is chilled by the cold winds from the Alps, while the damp warm winds from the Mediterranean are to a great extent intercepted by the Ligurian Apennines.

Throughout the region north of the Apennines no plants will thrive which cannot stand occasional severe frosts in winter, so that not only oranges and lemons but even the olive tree cannot be grown, except in specially favoured situations.

But the strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, known as the Riviera of Genoa, is not only extremely favourable to the growth of olives, but produces oranges and lemons in abundance, while even the aloe, the cactus and the palm flourish in many places.

But it is when we reach the central range of the Apennines that we find the coldest districts of Italy.

The chamois, bouquetin and marmot are found only in the Alps, not at all in the Apennines.

The Calabrian Alps, the less rocky sides of the Apulian Murgie and the whole length of the Apennines are covered at different heights, according to their situation.

It is clear, however, that the Celtic and Etruscan elements together occupied the greater part of the district between the Apennines and the Alps down to its Romanization, which took place gradually in the course of the 2nd century B.C. Their linguistic neighbors were Ligurian in the south and south-west, and the Veneti on the east.

At first, indeed, the term was apparently confined to the regions of the central and southern districts, exclusive of Cisalpine Gaul and the whole tract north of the Apennines, and this continued to be the official or definite signification of the name down to the end of the republic. But the natural limits of Italy are so clearly marked that the name came to be generally employed as a geographical term at a much earlier period.

It was separated from Etruria and Umbria by the main chain of the Apennines; and the river Ariminus was substituted for the far-famed Rubicon as its limit on the Adriatic.

The Via Flaminia was the earliest and most important road to the north; and it was soon extended (in 187 B.C.) by the Via Aemilia running through Bononia as far as Placentia, in an almost absolutely straight line between the plain of the P0 and the foot of the Apennines.

In the same year a road was constructed over the Apennines from Bon.onia to Arretium, but it is difficult to suppose that it was not until later that the Via Cassia was made, giving a direct communication between Arretium and Rome.

She was the last heiress of the great house of Canossa, whose fiefs stretched from Mantua across Lombardy, passed the Apennines, included the Tuscan plains, and embraced a portion of the duchy of Spoleto.

Charles hurried back from Naples, and narrowly escaped destruction at Fornovo in the passes of the Apennines.

An important zone of sulphur-bearing Miocene rocks occurs on the east side of the Apennines, constituting a great part of the province of Forli and part of Pesaro.

Extensive woods of this fir exist on the southern Alps, where the tree grows up to nearly 4000 ft.; in the Rhine countries it forms great part of the extensive forest of the Hochwald, and occurs in the Black Forest and in the Vosges; it is plentiful likewise on the Pyrenees and Apennines.

Being again compelled to flee, he retired to Italy, and founded the monastery of Bobbio in the Apennines, where he remained till his death, which took place on the 21st of November 615.

It is connected by steam tramways with Ravenna and Meldola, and by a road through the Apennines with Pontassieve.

Along the coast-line, roughly speaking between the Apennines at Rimini and the Carnic Alps at Trieste, three main systems of lagoons were thus created, the lagoon of Grado or Marano to the east, the lagoon of Venice in the middle, and the lagoon of Comacchio to the south-west (for plan, see Harbour).

It lies at the foot of the Apennines, 92 ft.

Here the main line from Milan divides, one portion going on parallel to the line of the ancient Via Aemilia (which it has followed from Piacenza downwards) to Rimini, Ancona and Brindisi, and the other through the Apennines to Florence and thence to Rome.

When the spring had come, being still very poor and in feeble health, he started homewards on foot by Florence, across the Apennines, through Bologna, Parma, Piacenza, Turin, over the Alps, through Savoy and Dauphine to Lyons, andfinally to Paris, where he arrived in excellent health.

Saffron is chiefly cultivated in Spain, France, Sicily, on the lower spurs of the Apennines and in Persia and Kashmir.

Aemilius Scaurus from Vada Volaterrana and Luna to Vada Sabatia and thence over the Apennines to Dertona (Tortona), where it joined the Via Postumia from Genua to Cremona.

Italy from the Tiber to the Alps, but by the end of the 5th century B.C. it was considerably diminished, and about the year 100 B.C. its boundaries were the Arnus (Arno), the Apennines and the Tiber.

It commands a splendid view of the Apennines, on every side except the east, where the Adriatic is seen.

At the close of his last sermon the undaunted friar publicly announced the day and hour of his departure from Bologna; and his lonely journey on foot over the Apennines was safely accomplished.

The clouds of steam condensed to copious torrents, which, mingling with the fine ashes, proiced muddy streams that swept far and wide over the plains, aching even to the foot of the Apennines.

At the end of the 6th century the exarchate included Istria; the maritime part of Venetia as distinct from the interior which was in the hands of the Lombard kings at Pavia; the exarchate proper, or territory around Ravenna on the eastern side of the Apennines, to which was added Calabria, which at that period meant the heel and not the toe of the boot; the Pentapolis, or coast from Rimini to Ancona with the interior as far as the mountains; the duchy of Rome, or belt of territory connecting the Pentapolis with the western coast, the coast of Naples, w i th Bruttium the toe of the boot, the modern Calabria, and Liguria, or the Riviera of Genoa.

Of its course through the Apennines considerable remains exist.

It is also the starting-point of a once important road over the Apennines to Pistoia by the Abetone Pass.

Its territory was coterminous with that of Bononia and Regium, as its diocese is now, and to the south it seems to have extended to the summit of the Apennines.

Finding the district already occupied, they proceeded over the river, drove out the Etruscans and Umbrians, and established themselves as far as the Apennines in the modern Romagna.

As early as the middle of the 15th century Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) recognized in seashells as well as in the teeth of marine fishes proofs of ancient sea-levels on what are now the summits of the Apennines.

In the same year Johann Gesner (1709-1790) set forth the theory of a great period of time, which he estimated at 80,000 years, for the elevation of the shell-bearing levels of the Apennines to their present height above the sea.

The precise limits were the river Silarus on the north-west, which separated it from Campania, and the Bradanus, which flows into the Gulf of Tarentum, on the north-east; while the two little rivers Laus and Crathis, flowing from the ridge of the Apennines to the sea on the west and east, marked the limits of the district on the side of the Bruttii.

Almost the whole is occupied by the Apennines, here an irregular group of lofty masses.

Just within the frontier of Lucania rises Monte Pollino, 7325 ft., the highest peak in the southern Apennines.

They dwelt in the mountainous country east of the Tiber, and north of the districts inhabited by the Latins and the Aequians in the heart of the Central Apennines.

The town is picturesquely situated at the foot of the slopes of the Apennines, and is crowned by a medieval fortress (Rocca), begun by the emperor Frederick I.

To the east this plain stretches in an unbroken level, as far as the eye can follow it, towards Venice and the Adriatic; on the southern side the line of the Apennines from Bologna to Genoa closes the view; to the west rise the Maritime, Cottian and Graian Alps, with Monte Viso as their central point; while northward are the Pennine, Helvetic and Rhaetian Alps, of which Monte Rosa, the Saasgrat and Monte Leone are the most conspicuous features.

But what properly forms the western bit of the Alps runs, from near Turin to the Col de Tenda, in a southerly direction, then bending eastwards to the Col d'Altare that divides it from the Apennines.

Latium Antiquum consisted principally of an extensive plain, now known as the Campagna di Roma, bounded towards the interior by the Apennines, which rise very abruptly from the plains to a height of between 4000 and 5000 ft.

Several of the Latin cities, including Tibur and Praeneste, were situated on the terrace-like underfalls of these mountains, 2 while Cora, Norba and Setia were placed in like manner on the slopes of the Volscian mountains (Monti Lepini), a rugged and lofty limestone range, which runs parallel to the main mass of the Apennines, being separated from them, however, by the valley of the Trerus (Sacco), and forms a continuous barrier from there to Terra.cina.

As the general level of the plain rises gradually, though almost imperceptibly, to the foot of the Apennines, these channels by degrees assume the character of ravines of a formidable description.

The fourth period is that in which the various subaerial agencies of abrasion, and especially the streams which drain the mountain chain of the Apennines, have produced the present features of the Campagna, a plain furrowed by gullies and ravines.

The more important city of Tusculum occupied one of the northern summits of the same group; while opposite to it, in a commanding situation on a lofty offshoot of the Apennines, rose Praeneste, now Palestrina.

Corniculum, farther west, stood on the summit of one of three conical hills that rise abruptly out of the plain at the distance of a few miles from Monte Gennaro, the nearest of the Apennines, and which were thence known as the Montes Corniculani.

Nomentum was a few miles farther north, between the Apennines and the Tiber, and close to the Sabine frontier.

The most healthy portions of the territory are in the north and east, embracing the slopes of the Apennines which are watered by the Teverone and Sacco; and the most pestilential is the stretch between the Monti Lepini and the sea.

In summer, indeed, the vast expanse is little better than an arid steppe; but in the winter it furnishes abundant pasture to flocks of sheep from the Apennines and herds of silver-grey oxen and shaggy black horses, and sheep passing in the summer to the mountain pastures.

Though the Apennines comprised within the boundaries of Latium do not rise to a height approaching that of the loftiest summits of the central range, they attain to a considerable altitude, and form steep and rugged mountain masses from 4000 to 5000 ft.

He then crossed the Apennines, and made his way to Rome, into which he forced an entrance after considerable opposition.

C. i is on the earliest dwellings of man; C. 2 on systems of Thales, Heraclitus, Democritus, &c.; c. 3 on bricks; c. 4 on sand; c. 5 on lime; c. 6 on pozzolana; c. 7 on kinds of stone for building; c. 8 on methods of constructing walls in stone, brick, concrete and marble, and on the materials for stucco; c. 9 on timber, time for felling it, seasoning, &c.; and c. to on the fir trees of the Apennines.

Spratt and Edward Forbes, and other travellers, and is merely a stream of inflammable gas issuing from crevices in the rocks, such as are found in several places in the Apennines.

The town commands a fine view to the north over the plain of Emilia and the lower course of the Po, itself lying on the foothills of the Apennines.

The road thence went on to Nuceria (whence a branch road ran to Septempeda and thence either to Ancona or to Tolentinum and Urbs Salvia) and Helvillum, and then crossed the main ridge of the Apennines, a temple of Jupiter Apenninus standing at the summit of the pass.

He kept them as long as he could north of the Apennines, while he completed the reduction of the fortresses of Tuscany.

It then entered the interval between the Apennines and the volcanic group of Rocca Monfina, and the original road, instead of traversing it, turned abruptly N.E.

These high offices rendered Guicciardini the virtual master of the papal states beyond the Apennines, during a period of great bewilderment and difficulty.

Stilicho, "fearing to suffer all that had caused himself to be feared," annihilated those defences of Alps and Apennines which the provident gods had interposed between the barbarians and the Eternal City, and planted the cruel Goths, his "skinclad" minions, in the very sanctuary of the empire.

A large force of Lombards under Audoin fought on the imperial side at the battle of the Apennines against the Ostrogothic king Totila in 5 53, but the assistance of Justinian, though often promised, had no effect on the relations of the two nations, which were settled for the moment after a series of truces by the victory of the Langobardi, probably in 554.

The principal seat of the settlement was the rich plain watered by the Po and its affluents, which was in future to receive its name from them; but their power extended across the Apennines into Liguria and Tuscany, and then southwards to the outlying dukedoms of Spoleto and Benevento.

It traverses the Tuscan Apennines - in which it rises at a point some 12 m.

The practicable passes of the Alps and the Apennines were held by Swiss and papal troops.

The Po is the dominating factor in north Italian geography, north Italy practically consisting of the Po basin, with the surrounding slopes of the Alps and Apennines.

He has left dated notes and drawings made at most of the stations we have named, besides a set of six large-scale maps drawn minutely with his own hand, and including nearly the whole territory of the Maremma, Tuscany and Umbria between the Apennines and the Tyrrhene Sea.

The district is mainly mountainous in the interior, including as it does the central portion of the whole system of the Apennines and their culminating point, the Gran Sasso d'Italia.

These are fed by less important streams, such as the Aterno and Gizio, which water the valleys between the main chains of the Apennines.

Moreover, it often falls upon sun-heated rocks, thus increasing the evaporation for the time; but gaugings made by the writer in the northern Apennines indicate that this loss is more than compensated by the greater rapidity of the fall and of the consequent flow.

It grows at considerable elevations in southern Europe, in the Alps, Apennines, Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada (4000 to 8000 ft.).

They again are divided into three parts - the Ligurian, Tuscan and Umbrian Apennines.

The Ligurian Apennines extend as far as the pass of La Cisa in the upper valley of the Magra (anc. Macra) above Spezia; at first they follow the curve of the Gulf of Genoa, and then run east-south-east parallel to the coast.

On the north and north-east lie the broad plains of Piedmont and Lombardy, traversed by the Po, the chief tributaries of which from the Ligurian Apennines are the Scrivia (Olubria), Trebbia (Trebia) and Taro (Taros).

The Tanaro (Tanarus), though largely fed by tributaries from the Ligurian Apennines, itself rises in the Maritime Alps, while the rivers on the south and south-west of the range are short and unimportant.

The Tuscan Apennines extend from the pass of La Cisa to the sources of.

This section of the Apennines is crossed by two railways, from Pistoia to Bologna and from Florence to Faenza, and by several good high roads, of which the direct road from Florence to Bologna over the Futa pass is of Roman origin; and certain places in it are favourite summer resorts.

The greater part of Tuscany, however, is taken up by lower hills, which form no part of the Apennines, being divided from the main chain by the valleys of the Arno, Chiana (Clanis) and Paglia (Pallia).

Towards the west they are rich in minerals and chemicals, which the Apennines proper do not produce.

The Umbrian Apennines extend from the sources of the Tiber to (or perhaps rather beyond) the pass of Scheggia near Cagli, where the ancient Via Flaminia crosses the range.

By some geographers, indeed, it is treated as a part of the central Apennines.

The central Apennines are the most extensive portion of the chain, and stretch as far as the valley of the Sangro (Sangrus).

Farther south three parallel chains may be traced, the westernmost of which (the Monti Sabini) culminates to the south in the Monte Viglio (7075 ft.), the central chain in the Monte Terminillo (7260 ft.), and farther south in the Monte Velino (8160 ft.), and the eastern in the Gran Sasso d'Italia (9560 ft.), the highest summit of the Apennines, and the Maiella group (Monte Amaro, 9170 ft.).

The volcanic mountains of the province of Rome are separated from the Apennines by the Tiber valley, and the Monti Lepini, or Volscian mountains, by the valleys of the Sacco and Liri.

In the southern Apennines, to the south of the Sangro valley, the three parallel chains are broken up into smaller groups; among them may be named the Matese, the highest point of which is the Monte Miletto (6725 ft.).

The valley of the Ofanto (Aufidus), which runs into the Adriatic close to Barletta, marks the northern termination of the first range of the Lucanian Apennines (now Basilicata), which runs from east to west, while south of the valleys of the Sele (on the west) and Basiento (on the east) - which form the line followed by the railway from Battipaglia via Potenza to 1 This river (anc. Aesis) was the boundary of Italy proper in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.

Snow lies on the highest peaks of the Apennines for almost the whole year.

The inner zone of crystalline and schistose rocks which forms the main chain of the Alps, is absent in the Apennines except towards the southern end.

The Apennines, indeed, consist almost entirely of Mesozoic and Tertiary beds, like the outer zones of the Alps.

But that in Tertiary times there was a high interior zone of crystalline rocks is indicated by the character of the Eocene beds in the southern Apennines.

Subsequent faulting has caused the subsidence of the greater part of Tyrrhenis, including nearly the whole of the inner zone of the mountain chain, and has left only the outer zones standing as the present Apennines.

Be this as it may, the Apennines, excepting in Calabria, are formed chiefly of Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Eocene and Miocene beds.

The sea grew shallow, the deposits became conglomeratic and shaly, volcanic eruptions began, and the present folds of the Apennines were initiated.

In the northern Apennines the elevation of the sea floor appears to have begun at an earlier period, for the Upper Cretaceous of that part of the chain consists largely of sandstones and conglomerates.

Glaciers no longer exist in the Apennines, but Post-Pliocene moraines have been observed in Basilicata.

The city was too much disturbed with political dissensions to attend to him; so Filelfo crossed the Apennines and settled in Florence.

Crossing the Apennines and passing through Florence, he reached Rome in the second week of 1475.

He went to Italy, and there had to take refuge among the Apennines, Pope Clement XI., who was his bitter enemy, having given strict orders for his arrest.

The Apennines shelter it from the cold north winds, and the prevailing winds in the west, blowing in from the Tyrrhenian Sea, are warm and humid, though Florence is colder and more windy than Rome in the winter and hotter in summer, owing to its being shut in among the mountains.

But they all lie within the range itself and do not, as in the Carpathians and the Apennines, form a fringe, upon the inner border of the chain.

A markedly upland character is given to the flora of this valley through the abundance of pines (9 species) and oaks (16 species) which it contains; but this peculiarity is readily accounted for by the steep slopes of the Apennines, which everywhere surround and dominate the old lake-basin.

She was carried to her brother's deathbed by angels and reposed as an anchoress in the Apennines.

While the Alps thus constitute the northern boundary of Italy, configuration and internal geography are determined almost entirely by the great chain of the Apennines, which branches off from the Maritime Alps between Nice and Genoa, and, after etching in an unbroken line from the Gulf of Genoa to the Adriatic, turns more to the south, and is continued throughout Central and Southern Italy, of which it forms as it were the back-bone, until it ends in the southernmost extremity of Calabria at Cape Spartivento.

Flowing from the Ligurian Apennines, which never attain the limit of perpetual snow, they generally dwindle in summer into insignificant streams. Beginning from the Tanaro, the principal of them are—(1) the Scrivia, a small but rapid stream flowing from the Apennines at the back of Genoa; (2) the Trebbia, a much larger river, though of the same torrent-like character, which rises near Torriglia within 20 m.

The eastern declivity of the central Apennines towards the Adriatic is far less interesting and varied than the western.

Even in the central parts of Tuscany, however, the climate is very much affected by the neighboring mountains, and the increasing elevation of the Apennines as they proceed south produces a corresponding effect upon the temperature.

Many botanists are even of opinion that the sweet chestnut, which now constitutes so large a part of the forests that clothe the sides both of the Alps and the Apennines, and in some districts supplies the chief food of the inhabitants, is not originally of Italian growth; it is certain that it had not attained in ancient times to anything like the extension and importance which it now possesses.

He hastened at once to Arretium, the termination of the western high road to the north, to protect the passes of the Apennines, but was defeated and killed at the battle of the Trasimene lake (see Punic Wars) .

From this flat, between the sea and the range of the Apennines, rises Mount Vesuvius, at the base of which, on or near the sea-shore, are the populous villages of San Giovanni Teduccio, Portici, Resina, Torre del Greco, Torre dell' Annunziata, &c., and the classic sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Italy has twenty different regions that are carved out by the Apennines and the Alps and shaped by their proximity to the many nearby seas, including the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and the Ionian.