page_title: Apennine Mountains
section_title: Tuscan–Emilian Apennines
hierarchical_section_title: Apennine Mountains / Geography / Northern Apennines / Tuscan–Emilian Apennines
caption_attribution_description: English: The marble column surmounted by a golden eagle facing Rome
context_page_description: The Apennines or Apennine Mountains are a mountain range consisting of parallel smaller chains extending c. 1,200 km along the length of peninsular Italy. In the northwest they join with the Ligurian Alps at Altare. In the southwest they end at Reggio di Calabria, the coastal city at the tip of the peninsula. Since 2000 the Environment Ministry of Italy, following the recommendations of the Apennines Park of Europe Project, has been defining the Apennines System to include the mountains of north Sicily, for a total distance of 1,500 kilometres. The system forms an arc enclosing the east side of the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Seas.
  The Apennines conserve some intact ecosystems that have survived human intervention. In these are some of the best preserved forests and montane grasslands in Europe, now protected by national parks and, within them, a high diversity of flora and fauna. These mountains are one of the last refuges of the big European predators such as the Italian wolf and the marsican brown bear, now extinct in the rest of Central Europe.
  The mountains lend their name to the Apennine peninsula that forms the major part of Italy.
context_section_description: Starting at Cisa Pass, the mountain chains turn further to the southeast to cross the peninsula along the border between the Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany regions. They are also named the Tuscan–Emilian Apennines west of the Futa pass and the Tuscan–Romagnol Apennines east of it, or just the Tuscan Apennines. They extend to the upper Tiber River. The highest point is Monte Cimone at 2,165 m (7,103 ft).
  A separate branch, the Apuan Alps, goes to the southwest bordering the coast south of La Spezia. Whether they are to be considered part of the Apennines is a matter of opinion; certainly, they are part of the Apennine System. Topographically only the valley of the River Serchio, which running parallel to the coast turns and exits into the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Pisa, separates the Apuan Alps from the Apennines; geologically the rock is of a slightly different composition: marble. The Roman marble industry was centered at Luna, and is now active in Carrara.
  As the Tuscan Apennines divide the peninsula between the Po Valley and the plains and hills of Tuscany and Lazio, transportation over them is essential to political and economic unity. Historically the Romans used the Via Flaminia between Rome and Rimini. The montane distance between Florence in Tuscany and Bologna in Emilia-Romagna is shorter, but exploitation of it required the conquest of more rugged terrain, which was not feasible for the ancients. Railway lines were constructed over the mountains in the early 19th century but they were of low capacity and unimprovable.
  Since 1856 a series of tunnels have been constructed to conduct "the Bologna-Florence rail line", which is neither a single line nor a single tunnel. The Porrettana Line went into service in 1864, the Direttissima in 1934 and the High Speed in 1996. A few dozen tunnels support the three of them, the longest on the High-Speed Line being the Voglia Tunnel at 16.757 km (10.412 mi). The longest is on the Direttissima, the Great Apennine Tunnel, which at 18.5 kilometres (11.5 miles) is the longest entirely within Italy, although the Simplon Tunnel, which connects Italy and Switzerland, is longer. Automobile traffic is carried by the Autostrada del Sole, Route A1, which goes through numerous shorter tunnels, bypassing an old road, originally Roman, through Futa Pass. In December 2015, a new Route A1 called Variante di Valico was opened after many years of construction consisting of major tunnels (the longest being the new 8.6-kilometre (5.3-mile) 'Tunel Base') and new overpasses notably shortening the traveling time between Florence and Bologna by road.
  Inside the Tuscan–Romagnol Apennines are in the southern part also the Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona, Campigna National Park.
  Geographically the southernmost sharp limit of the Tuscan–Romagnol Apennines is the Bocca Serriola pass that is politically in northern Umbria and links Fano and Città di Castello.
  The Tiber River at Rome flows from Monte Fumaiolo in the Tuscan-Romagnol Apennine from northeast to southwest, projecting into the Tyrrhenian Sea at right angles to the shore. The upper Tiber, however, flows from northwest to southeast, gradually turning through one right angle clockwise. The northern Tiber valley is deep and separates the Apennines on the left bank from a lesser range, the Tuscan Anti- or Sub-Apennines on its right.
caption: Source of the Tiber. Marked by a Column decorated with an Eagle and Wolf heads – Part of the Apennine fauna and symbols of Rome
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