Everything about Liguria totally explained
Liguria is a coastal
region of north-western
Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is
Genoa.
Geography
Liguria borders
France to the west,
Piedmont to the north, and
Emilia-Romagna and
Tuscany to the east. It lies on the
Ligurian Sea. The coastal strip forms the
Italian Riviera; further inland are the Ligurian
Alps, on the west, and the Ligurian
Apennines on the east. It is noticeable that, despite the high population density, woods cover half of the total area. The Ligurian coast enjoys a typical
mediterranean climate, compared to the semi-
continental climate of the
Po valley to the north; in January, Genoa records an average temperature of about 8-10°C, with no frost, which can occur only in the mountainous interior. Summer averages about 25-30°C.
Rainfall can be very abundant at times; mountains very close to the coast create an
orographic effect, so Genoa can see up to 2000 mm of rain in a year; other areas instead show the normal values of the Mediterranean area (500-800 mm).
Liguria is divided into four provinces:
History
Liguria is a very old name, dating back to pre-
Roman times. Ancient
Ligures settled the Mediterranean coast from
Rhône to
Arno, but later Gallic migration mixed and produced the Gallo-Ligurian culture. The region was officially subdued and colonised by the
Roman Republic during the
2nd century BC. During the
Middle Ages, Genoa gradually gained control of most of Liguria, which shared most of the city's history, and, with a few breaks in the 15th and early 16th century when the area was under either
Milanese or
French control, the
Republic of Genoa ruled the area until 1796, when the French Revolutionary general
Napoleon Bonaparte reorganized the area into the
Ligurian Republic. The Ligurian Republic proved short-lived, however, and was annexed by France in 1805. Following the end of the
Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the area was annexed by the
Kingdom of Sardinia.
Economy
The Ligurian economy is based on tourism, olive oil production, winemaking, fisheries, and a different industrial sectors (yacht construction and maintenance, cruise liner building, military shipyards, glass- and ceramics-making, slate extraction and manufacturing, railroad carriage and locomotive building, oil refineries, aviation) mainly concentrated in
Genoa and the
Province of Savona. Steel, once a major industry in the 50s and 60s is being phased out after the late 70s and 80s crisis, as Italy is moving away from heavy industry to pursue more technologically advanced "light" industrial revolutions.
Politics
In
Medieval and
Renaissance times the then city states of Liguria were controlled by merchant families. Genoa was then run by the powerful merchant families, prominently the
Adorno and the
Campofregoso.
Demographics
Due to a severe economic crisis in the '80s and '90s Genoa lost 200,000 inhabitants, but after the economic recovery in the late '90s the region has attracted consistent fluxes of immigrants. As of 2006, the Italian national institute of statistics, ISTAT, estimated that 65,994 foreign-born immigrants live in Liguria, equal to 4.1% of the total regional population.
Towns of Liguria with a population of 50,000 or more::
Image gallery
Image:Panorama di Genova (Matitone).jpg|Genova
Image:La Spezia.jpg|La Spezia
Image:Savona-harbour01.jpg|Savona
Image:Imperia Porto Maurizio BMK.jpg|Imperia (Porto Maurizio)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Liguria'.
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