Structures and infrastructures of the central Adriatic. Topics for new environmental policies

The period starting from the Unity of Italy constitutes a fundamental step for the creation of services and infrastructures of the entire peninsula. This circumstance is particularly evident in regions affected by secular delays linked to their geographical and economic marginality. The opening or strengthening of some ports on the Middle Adriatic coast, such as those of Ancona, Pescara and Bari, is linked to events of redesigning the respective cities; moreover it leads to developments that are very often the result of conflicting relationships between the reference spaces. In the same way, the passage of the coastal railway and the creation of additional routes in the inland areas, have in a short time brought down a denser and more ancient network of roads, redistributed the populations and fixed ever more binding territorial hierarchies. This contribution has the objective of analyzing the dynamics of the transformations that have taken place both at small and large scale. The attempt is above all to reconstruct the scope of the structures and infrastructures that for about a century have made the glory of cities and territories. It is also important to investigate the parts that the heavy dismissals of the last decades have left as residual. In fact, the new environmental policies call for the conversion of places to be compatible with their nature and their stratified identity.