Page 39 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italian Riviera

INTRODUCING THE IT ALIAN RIVIER A  37

THE HISTORY OF THE

ITALIAN RIVIERA

The history of Liguria is linked inextricably with the sea. The coastal
climate encouraged early settlement and the Romans built the first ports.
Most importantly, from the start of the second millennium, the Republic of
Genoa became a major seapower whose tentacles reached all over the
Mediterranean, and beyond.

The climate and geography of Liguria Cévennes. While clashes and power
were highly favourable to humans in struggles were taking place both in
the far distant past. The coast was the lowlands and in the mountains to
suitable for settlements and navigation the north, new arrivals turned up on the
on the open sea, while travel to what Ligurian coast: the Greeks and the Etruscans
is now the Côte d’Azur and France was who were, at the time, in total control of
made easy by the low coastal hills. As a the Mediterranean and its markets. The
result, the population of this part of the Greeks were by then firmly installed in
Mediterranean was very scattered. Proof Marseille, and sought space to settle in
of this comes from the numerous traces the Ligurian valleys. The Etruscans had
of tombs and hearths found in the caves foun ded ports and trading cities along
and on the hills of the region, forming the Tuscan coast.
an almost uninterrupted line from Liguria A series of settlements was established
to Provence. during this period, inclu ding proper
The first Ligurians appeared during villages at Genoa, Chiavari and Ameglia.
the Bronze Age. In an era of migration, Traces of necropoli in which the ashes
and battles to occupy the best positions, of the deceased were buried have
the Ligurians fortified their settlements been discovered.
with walls to defend villages, pasture The onset of the Roman era was
and access to the sea. They were marked by the arrival of Roman legions
mentioned for the first time (under the around 218 BC, and this represented a
name of Ligyes) in the 7th century BC much more significant chan ge for the
by Greek sour ces, who described how region than the disruptions caused by
the land controlled by the ancient previous popula tions of travellers and
Ligurians extended far beyond the merchants. For Rome, Liguria represented
current boundaries of the region, as a fundamental transit point for expansion
far as the limits of Catalonia and the into nearby Gaul.

240,000 BC First 80,000–60,000 BC 12,340 BC Date 218 BC The
burial in the cave at Presence of Neanderthal of handprints and Romans establish
Balzi Rossi man in Ligurian sites footprints found in their first base
the Grotte di Toirano in Liguria
300,000 BC 100,000 BC 50,000 BC 10,000 BC 1,000 BC 100 BC
First millennium BC
Golden age of the Ligurians
36,000–10,000 BC Footprints in
Finds in the Balzi Era of Homo sapiens and contact with the Greeks
Rossi museum the Grotte and Phoenicians
di Toirano
Detail from the frescoes by Perin del Vaga in the Loggia degli Eroi, Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Genoa

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