Campagna di Roma

Campagna di Roma, an undulating, mostly uncultivated and unhealthy plain of Italy surrounding Rome, including the greatest part of ancient Latium, with a length (supposing the name to apply to the district extending from Cape Linaro, south of Civita Vecchia, to Terracina, beyond the Pontine Marshes) of about 90 miles, and an extreme breadth inland, to the Alban and Sabine hills, of 40 miles. A broad strip of sandy plain skirts the Mediterranean, with a thick fringe of pines. The ground is almost entirely volcanic, the lakes being formed by craters of extinct volcanoes, and the broad Tiber winds across the plain between banks of tufa, of which the Seven Hills of Rome are composed. The vapours rising from this district produce the pestilential atmosphere styled Aria Cattiva. The number of inhabitants is very small, and in summer they are driven away by its pestilent air. In autumn herdsmen descend from the Apennines with their herds, the pasturage in some parts of the plain being rich and abundant; and skins, wool, and cheese, together with wine, are exported in some quantity. This district was not always as we now find it; though it was never regarded as healthy, Domitian and Hadrian built here their splendid villas; and in the early years of the Republic such towns as Veii and Fidene stood here, as well as a number of small places that survived till medieval times. It was swept by Goths, Vandals, and Langobards from the 5th to the 8th century, afterwards by Normans and Saracens, and stripped of its remaining wealth by rival barons; the removal of the pope to Avignon completed its desolation, which successive inundations of the Tiber, always more frequent as the inland forests were destroyed, have only intensified, and which later efforts in the way of drainage, canalisation, and timber-planting have done little to remove. Pius VI. especially endeavoured to drain the Pontine Marshes, and, during their dominion in Italy, the French effected some improvements. Garibaldi also during his later years interested himself greatly in the matter, and of late some steps have been taken to check the overflow and stagnation of the waters of the Tiber, whilst the eucalyptus plant has been extensively grown with a view to prevent malaria; but only a tenth of the district is as yet under any cultivation, and only ruinous taverns and the huts of shepherds and vine-dressers break the solitudes that stretch for miles round Rome.