I've found some more road-related pics from that trip.
The first is an abandoned village up in the Tuscan hills, as seen from the ss12 between Lucca and Modena. Abandoned villages are a not-uncommon sight in the hillier parts of rural Italy.
The second is a
Casa Cantoniera, a very common sight on the
strade statali, Italy's equivalent of A roads, and they exist in various states of repair. This one is on the descent from the mountain retreat of
Abetone, on the Tuscan-Emilian frontier, as the ss12 winds its way down through the Appenini towards Lucca.
As a historian I have some hopes of pursuing a research project on the roads in Fascist Italy, and if I do, these places are sure to feature in it.
I'm afraid the only web link I know of that explains what these buildings were is in Italian. So far as I know, when Mussolini had the Italian roads classified in the 1920s, these places were built to house the crews who worked to maintain them, as well as any travellers who were in need of an overnight stop providing food and shelter. Even though you'd have had to be super-rich to own a car in 1920s Italy, hotels would have been few and far between in the countryside, so you might have had to slum it with the commoners in one of these places. It takes ages to drive around Italy on the
strade statali even in a modern car (and even with me at the wheel!), so I'd imagine that they must have been welcome refuges for motorists - and travellers on foot, horse or donkey - back then. I'd like to take pictures of them whenever I see them, but if I did that I'd be stopping all the time!
I love the way they have the historic name of the route, and the location along that route given in kilometres, etched into the side of the building. This one says "SS12 dell'Abetone e del Brennero", the number and historic name
of that road.
