Italy breaks down into twenty
regions, which in turn divide
into different provinces. Some
of these regional boundaries
reflect long-standing historic
borders, like Tuscany,
Lombardy or the Veneto;
others, like Friuli-Venezia
Giulia or Molise, are more
recent administrative
divisions, often established
in recognition of quite modern
distinctions. But the sharpest
division is between north and
south. The
north is one
of the most advanced
industrial societies in the
world, its people speak
Italian with the cadences of
France or Germany and its
"capital", Milan, is
a thoroughly European city.
The
south ,
derogatively known as
il
mezzogiorno , begins
somewhere between Rome and
Naples, and is by contrast one
of the most economically
depressed areas in Europe; and
its history of absolutist
regimes often seems to linger
in the form of the spectre of
organized crime and the remote
hand of central government in
Rome.
The economic backwardness
of the south is partly the
result of the historical
neglect to which it was
subjected by various foreign
occupiers. But it is also the
result of the deliberate
policy of politicians and
corporate heads to
industrialize the north while
preserving the underdeveloped
south as a convenient
reservoir of labour. Italy's
industrial power and dynamism,
based in the north, was built
on the back of exploited
southerners who emigrated to
the northern industrial cities
of Turin, Milan and Genoa in
their millions during the
Fifties and Sixties. Even now,
Milan and Turin have very
sizeable populations of meridionali
- southerners - working in
every sector of the economy.
This north-south divide is
something you'll come up
against time and again,
wherever you're travelling. To
a northerner the mere mention
of Naples - a kind of totem
for the south - can provoke a
hostile response; and you may
notice graffiti in northern
cities against terroni
(literally "those of the
land"), the derogatory
northern nickname for
southerners. In recent years
this hostility has been
articulated through the rise
of the Lega Nord, who have
promoted the future
independence of northern Italy
and campaigned vigorously
against immigration from
outside Italy.
Oddly enough, the Lega
Nord's campaign against the
entrenchment and vested
interests of the Italian
political establishment, not
to mention organized crime and
the Mafia (whose power has
spread to the north of the
country), backfired to some
extent when it became clear
that the centre of the tangentopoli
("bribesville")
corruption scandals was, after
all, Milan itself. Most
northern Italians were forced
to revise their simplistic
view of the south as a drain
on the country's resources,
and look to sort out the
problems in their own
political backyard. These
massive political upheavals
seemed to dissipate the
north-south divide for a while
and give most Italians a
greater sense of unity than
ever before, if only by virtue
of their opposition to the old
political establishment.
