Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-05-14
THE MILITARY ROADS OF lTALY-lMP0R
TANT POSITION OF THE ARMIES.

Poutremo Lungiana april l6l Correspondence OF the
London News
Ii you throw a glance on your Italian map,
you will see that the town of Parma lies in
the very heart of Northern Italy, very nearly
at an equal distance from Geona, Turin, Mi
Ian, Venice, Rimini, Florence and LeghOrn.
Now that same town of Parma is only at the
distance of seventy English miles from the
Gulf of Spezia, by far the largest and finest
harbor ON the coast OF Italy, if not indeed in
the whole Mediterranean. Napoleon |, who
had achieved the unity Of Italy, or rather
had annexed the whole of Italy to France,
anxious to find the shortest cut from the Med
iterranean to the heart of Italy, had oonnec-
ted Spezia with Parama by means of mill
tary road, somewhat in the style of those of
Mont Gents and the Simplora, which went
from Spezia to Sarzna, and thence to Aulla,
Tervarossa and Pontremoli, and so across
the Apprentices at the pass of La Chisa, de-
cending to BercetO and the plain at Tornova,
distant only sixteen miles from Parma.
This military road was nothing new in his
tory, as many armies had trodden it in theii
way from Tuscany to the North. Frederick
Barbarossa was all but cut to pieces with his
whole host in the narrow gOrges of this very
valley above PontremOli; and Charles VIII
OF France had also narrow escape through
it on his retreat from Naples 1t was, howe.
yer, never a carriageable road before the time
of Napoleon, and there was no reason why
the harbor and the highway, which that en-
terprising had planed and construc.
ted in warlike times for military purposes
should not after the peace, have been made
available to commercial enterprise
The port of Spezia, however, together with
Geona and the Riviera, fell to the lot of the
King of Sardinia, to whose navy that harbor
lying as it did in corner of his dOminions,
and with only the thinnest slip Of territory
to back it, could be of no practicable use
Above Sarzana this province of Lunigiana, OF
Val di Magra, was parcelled out amongst sc
many of the sovereigns ofths adjoining States
their different patches were so divided and
subdivided, and so curiously dovetaied into
each other, that a traveller from Spezia Il
Parma had to cross six or seven different from
tiers, and to be plagued to death by police
and custom officers at every stage. The road
was therefore forsaken by travellers, neglec
ted by the sovereigns, and was in such STATE
of dilapidation as to be utterly impracticablt
for carriages not quite ten years after the tal
OF Napoleon.
The upper district of Lunigiana, or prov
ince of Pontremoli, from the heights of LII
elsa, which was the frontier of Parma, down
to Villafranca, was in 1915 given to the GRANT
Duke of Tuscany. 1t was cut of from tn,
rest his territoy by the Grafagnana, and tn,
duchies of Massa and Carrara, which belonged
to the Duke of Modena and who besides
shut in the lower valley by his fortress of Aul
Ia, ana other small estates lying between il
and SArzana.
hope that you will not find that | hav,
given you all this long description without
reason. You know that Austria, in the ex
pectation of war, is making her main efforts
at Pavia and Piacenza, and there is scarcely
doubt that the brunt Of the war will fal
upon the district which lies between the Sar
dinian frontier at Letradella and the adjoining
lands OF Piacenza and Parma. The PiedmOn.
tese, whose strong position lies between Ca
sale ON the Pc, Alessandria and Tortona, viii
advance on the line of the Apprentices so as tt
invest Piacenza, and at the same time Frencl
army, say so, 900 men, embarking at Toulon
will land at Spezia and forcing the ginger
bread strongholds OF the Duke OF Modena al
Aulla, they will march on Pontremoli, whence
they may cross the mountains at La Cisca and
descend upon Parma by FomnovO, thus in
vesting Piacenza on the other side. You vii
seeIthat the work of the first Napoleon will
be turned TO good purposes by the third.
speak so freely OF these matters, not by any
means because am in the secrets of either O.
the belligerent parties, or because | should
feel inclined to betray their secrets, if they
were confined to me, but because the natura
position of both parties, and their movements
for the last two or three months, clearly point
to the course Ihave thus sketched out.