Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size If we are to trust the geographers, southern Italy probably should begin immediately south of a small and ancient bridge in Umbria – c e ntro geografico d’Italia – or the geographical centre of Italy.
That’s all of three hours north of Naples, the city from where conventional wisdom tends to dictate that the south of Italy begins. I’m visiting neither Ponte Cardona, part of an ancient Roman aqueduct system, nor Naples, though I’m most definitely heading due south on an exploration of southern Italy, with Rome the starting point. The eternal city is so infernally unkempt in parts these days that it almost conforms to the stereotype of the south, where the ratio of laundry per poorly constructed high-rise balcony escalates dramatically and where, as the theory goes, order ends and chaos begins.
The route through southern Italy. Whatever the case, what it all tends to indicate is that the concept of the south of Italy is to this day far more on a psychological and economical basis than a strictly geographic one. I’m putting it all behind me, literally, and surrendering to the south, wherever it really begins, embarking from the Italian capital to Palermo, on a 17-day “Italy, the Deep South & Sicily” Albatross Tours’ small group fully escorted journe.