Inland navigation in Tuscany: Continuation and end Tuscany, inland navigation

The first railway in Tuscany (Florence-Pisa, 1848), lengthed to Leghorn in 1849, following the way of the chief rivers - Arno - and canal, - Navicelli, gave rise to the crisis of shipway. The provisional Tuscany Government (1859-60) decreed that the first railway to be carried out was the coastal line to Rome, following the pressures of landowners from Florence and Pisa of the large estates in Maremma, then believed to be a Tuscan Far West south Leghorn, because of its (potential) assets, both in agriculture or in mining. From the beginnings of 20th century, a great campaign started in the North of Italy for an efficient water connection between Milan and the Venice port, with the approval of the Government. The Latium and the Tuscany, runned through by Tevere and Arno - the second and third Italian rivers, claimed the extension of the legislative measures, taken for the North, to Central Italy . The myth of the river navigation enchanted also the great capitalists and industrialists of the Orlando family. Salvatore e Paolo Orlando, supporters of the river navigation, entered together in politics, in Rome and in Leghorn, to support this cause. The provincial offices of the Engineers Corp were charged of the plans for the modernisation of inland navigation. The Pisa office took care of the reconstruction of "Canale dei Navicelli", from Pisa to Leghorn (the only project achieved), while the Florence office got lost in the fanciful (and nostalgic) plans concerning the connection to Rome through inland valleys, even rescuing the old idea of Leonard to deviate the Arno river northward, to Prato, Pistoia and Lucca.

Keywords: Public works Orlando family Transport policy

Lando Bortolotti, La navigazione interna in Toscana: continuazione e fine in "STORIA URBANA " 138/2013, pp 119-134, DOI: 10.3280/SU2013-138007