The Pisan port from late ancient times, the establishment of the port at Viareggio in the 16th century, the early studies on the port of Marina di Carrara in the 18th century, the central role of the port of Leghorn from the end of the fifteen hundreds to the present day and the port of Piombino and its definitive development between the 19th and 20th centuries. This list is a journey which starts out from the beginnings of the ancient world and arrives at the present day. Such a journey is depicted in the volume “I sistemi portuali della Toscana mediterranea. Infrastrutture, scambi, economie dall'antichità a oggi” (The port systems of Mediterranean Tuscany. Infrastructure, exchanges, economies of the ancient world to the world of today.) edited by the “Marco Tangheroni” Centre of Historical Mediterranean Studies (published by Pacini) and presented at the National Convention on “I porti della penisola italiana: due mari a confronto fra storia e sviluppo futuro” (The ports of the Italian Peninsula: two seas confronted by their history and future development) held in Ancona in the month of April.
The volume investigates the transformations and changes which happened on the Tuscan coastal front over the course of the centuries. It also examines the setting up of port and landing structures along with variations connections to the archipelago and the islands and the championed great river and internal land connections . “On the one hand we have the Mediterranean and a Mediterranean Sea of which one feels the need to re-think the history,” writes professor Giuseppe Petralia in his introduction to the volume. “On the other hand we have a regional area which is defined and perceived as Tuscan but which demands no less an in-depth re-interpretation. 'Toscana' (Tuscany) is not a 'natural' region but rather an operated slice of history in the midst of a much vaster and extended 'pantirrenica' (pan-Tyrrhenian region) whereby only the north-eastern Appenine front confers a space of obligatory frontier.”
The work provides, therefore, an in-depth picture of the importance of the ports and the coast for the development of Tuscany, for it underlines their central role for a new opening towards Mediterranean markets. “Leghorn – a multi-purpose port counterdistinguished by 'roll-on, roll-off' traffic, passengers, containers and loosely packed merchandise. Piombino – a port principally dedicated to its connection to the Mediterranean islands. Marina di Carrara – specialised in the transport of marble and granite. To these the importance of the port of Viareggio is added, which is of high level regional interest in the pleasure craft sector,” writes Luca Ceccobao, Tuscan Regional Councillor for Infrastructure and Mobility in his presentation. “Today more so than ever, thanks to the new centrality of the Mediterranean basin, the growth of our Region has gone from the necessity of rendering our ports competitive with the European economic system to acts which do not neglect but rather value integration with other European towns.”