Choice of Agrarian Contracts

Today as we drove through many miles of farmland on our way to Orvieto, I started to notice the amount of crop and potential farmland growth their was around this geographical region. The article, Choice of Agrarian Contracts that I recently read connects with this area of farming and crop production through talking about some practices of sharecropping used in early Italy. In the article, they highlighted three main types of sharecropping contracts. Some of these discussed were owner farmer contracts, share contracts, as well as fixed rent contracts.

The Tuscan land region has two main traditional types of crops, vines and other perennial crops, as well as annual crops, like wheat and other grain. The article dove into the practice of crop mix, as perennial crops were much more high risk so it was most profitable and the lowest risk to mix these types of crops in the land that you had available. 

Later the article discussed how these types of land contracts and sharecropping was very common at the time, and had some advantages and disadvantages for both parties. The main one I would like to highlight that I found most important is how tenants renting out this land did not have any way to borrow money to get this land, and were forced to take out loans from the landowners in order to use this land for crop production. This gave a lot of leverage to landowners at this time in the Tuscan region, and must have enabled them to control contracts and profit much more from the deal than the worker would have. 

Overall, traveling through the Tuscan region in the last few days has been a great experience to see how some of the region is able to produce agriculturally still today, and through reading this article it gives me a better understanding on how the early Tuscan region produced, as well as how it is the same and how it has evolved. 

Transhumance Paths and CPR's

Before we left Fontecchio and made our way over to Amalfi, we stopped at Caporciano and got to walk up to a really cool castle. From here we were able to see several small villages and the paths they shared to move cattle from one grazing area to another. It was also really cool to see the mountainsides which some farmers would have to move their flocks of sheep over when recourses were scarce or the change in seasons made grazing harder. This trip perfectly tied into the article Mitch and I had the honor of presenting tho the class.

Our article primarily consisted of analyzing the relationship of individuals who belong to a common property and the state. Why this is an important topic is because if the state has too much control  over the members of a CPR, the regulations can be overbearing to the point that the operation becomes very inefficient. An interesting point that the article makes is a theoretical idea called the tragedy of the commons. This is the idea where the people that share a common area of land all act in only self interest. This selfishness is very harmful to the land and destroys the future benefit of of any of the members of the commons. However, this idea is lacking one key variable which is the fact that commons members can monitor each other and implement punishments to anyone who chooses not to comply with the rules. 

After this last example you might ask the question, why was the state needed at all if everyone could keep each other in check. The reason is because the state was able to cut down on certain costs. For example, the state would handle costs that are necessary for all members of the common such as fencing or creating paths. Another interesting thing that would happen during this time was that there would actually be people sent out on some of the transhumance paths to collect taxes from the farmers. It was really cool getting to know about this piece of history and our visit to the castle gave me an awesome view of what these commons might have looked like.

The Etruscans

Today we visited some underground caves in Orvieto. First with our guide, who is a freelance archaeologist working with several universities, we visited a private cellar where we saw several Etruscan artifacts. 

Our guide showed us several different rooms in the cellar, one of which was a sort of garbage room where he said he found a lot of bits of pottery. When he took us into the room with many of the artifacts he had collected, he pointed out that many of the bowls that he found weren’t broken. He explained that there were several reasons for this. One of these reasons was that the inside of the bowl could get scraped up by utensils, he mentioned that sometimes they would scratch designs and letters into the bowls but this could make the bowls leak. Pictured below are some of the artifacts we saw.

After we visited the private cellar we went on the Orvieto underground tour where we visited two caves underneath the city. The first one was where olive oil was made. The huge press, pictured below, was used to grind the olives up into a sort of paste during the first step of the process. The second cave had tons of holes in the wall where the pigeons lived that the Etruscans raised for food.

The article that I read for the day was about the Etruscans. It went through the history of the Etruscans and how we don’t know very much about them since most of the structures they built were made of wood and mud, which has long since deteriorated. Most of what we have learned about this civilization comes from these caves since they have been able to withstand the test of time.

The Rental Market in Rome

Ciao! 

As we have reached Rome our final location of the trip, it is easy to tell that it is by far the biggest city and one of the most historical!

One of the first landmarks that we went to take a look at was The Great Roman Coliseum. The Coliseum is one of the most well known destinations in the world and it lived up to all the hype! Being my first time visiting the site I was immediately struck with how massive the structure is and how any depiction I had scene in movies or documentaries couldn’t possibly do it justice. On top of that it was by far one of the busiest places we had visited during the trip. Amongst the many people we crossed paths with, I heard 4-5 different languages being spoken and was approached by a different sunglasses, phone charger, selfie stick, water bottle, or Knick Knack salesman, what seemed like every few minutes, it’s a very unique place! 

To help guide us through our visit, we had a local historian walking around with us. She was very knowledgeable about the Coliseum and provided a ton of information that I myself had never knew. One of the facts that I found the most interesting was how during World War 2 the Coliseum was turned into a makeshift Refuge for people seeking safety from all around Italy. This was due to its historical significance that it was declared a no bomb zone. This led to many family’s living together temporarily in the coliseum to wait out the war. This fact was really interesting because the Article that Jake and I discussed this week covered the topic of living in Ancient Rome. 

Our article for the week, discussed how the rental and housing market in Rome was structured. One of the main points that the article discussed, was how many people couldn’t afford to own property and live alone, so in many situations people rented rooms in areas with many different families. The first set up consisted of apartments that would have two main families accompanied with 4-5 other families living in sub leased rooms. On top of that family’s also lived in places of work or even in buildings that served as hotels for wealthy travelers. It’s interesting to think about how people in Rome lived back then vs. today. I would assume that there has been a shift from the tendency to live in such close quarters. However, I would also assume that renting is still very prominent and that living in very close to the shop that you own and work at is still common. It also is interesting to think about a place like the Coliseum that I would normally associate with fighting and death, as a place of safety and comfort. 

Pricing Heritage

              Heritage and history are two subjects of immense importance to a nation’s identity which is extremely tough to place a value on them. Museums are a necessity in today’s society, yet from an economic perspective there are in a market failure due to the unpredictable measures of demand and supply for this good. Clearly, we can not just sell all priceless artifacts and testaments to humanity to the highest bidders. Can you imagine the uproar if the Liberty Bell, Mona Lisa, or the Statue of David vanish from the public sight into a private collection? This is why heritage in an economic sense is classified as a public good.

              My favorite aspect of Italy has been the opportunity to visit museums and learn about the rich cultural history the country has to offer the world. When we were in Florence a unique situation arose where half the class wanted to see the Statue of David in a museum with a entrance fee of 12 euro while the other half did not want to see it due to the cost. In one of our class discussions about the economics of heritage that example was brought up as it showcases how museums need to have a reasonable price to attract visitors in. Me being me definitely paid the price since I couldn’t bear the thought of being within 100 yards of world history. It is definitely a tricky situation for museums to be in when determine a price on heritage and history.

              The article my partner and I presented on “The Economics of Heritage” mentioned how nonprofit organizations are some of the best groups to preserve heritage and history. In Italy, most of the heritage sites are run by the state which costs a lot of money and taxes to keep functioning. The authors explained how in the UK and the US nonprofits have advantages to running museums such as tax breaks and they have volunteers instead of employees. The public deserves a reasonable price to enter museums to see priceless artifacts since heritage is important to people across the globe.

Caesar Coin

Statue of David

The Vatican and An Economic Model of the Medieval Church

Today on our final day in Italy, we finally explored Vatican City and all the million sights it offers us. When we first arrived at the Vatican museum we were completely lost and had no idea where to go. We ended up just starting to generally follow the crowds and found our way into exhibits of ancient hieroglyphs, mummies, statues, rugs, maps, artwork, and more statues. There were more artifacts there than I could even imagine or comprehend how so many different parts of history were represented in the museum.

This entire quest of exhibits we walked through were entirely based on us following the signs to find the Sistine Chapel, and finally after hours of walking (not an exaggeration) we finally found it! The chapel was truly something different and there were so many rules when you enter such as no talking and no use of phones. The moment we walk in there are roughly five security guards all watching and yelling at people on their phones. Then I was astonished when we walked in a little further that there are hundreds of people crammed into this chapel. It truly showed the significance of this chapel and our lost journey was a success. Also shhh, I snuck a quick photo in the chapel.

We capped off our journey with finding the exit (harder than you might think) and then making our way over to St. Peter's Basilica and the square out in front of it. The church was absolutely massive and the square was full of tourists and really quite the site. (also a picture featuring Jake and Mitch)

Now a question you have to ask when looking at all the priceless artifacts that are present in this area and the massive amounts of wealth on display is, how did they come into so much money? The answer to this question was discussed in our article reading and earlier in the day during our discussions. Our article looked at the medieval church sole as an economic organizations instead of as a religious church, although that did factor into the discussion. Essentially, when looking at the church as an economic organization, it is truly a monopoly over the "soul" industry. An industry in which the religion is basically forced upon everyone, and all these followers must following the strict commands of the church in order to reach salvation. With such an importance and belief, the church designed ways in which each level of the hierarchy would pass money along to the next until it finally came to the top level, the Vatican. This explains why so many priceless artifacts are found here and why the city is grand. The plan and goal of the highest in power of the church were able to succeed in charging every monetary and religious organization to be a part of the only real church, mainly through lump-sum taxes, and created the lavish city that is Vatican City.

Fiscus and Patrimonium

During our travel day to Amalfi, our class had the chance to stop by a local sheep farm, as well as an ancient Roman land where transhumance and grazing was a common economic and agricultural practice.

As Connor and I learned in our article Ficus and Patrimonium, the practice of transhumance in early Rome was a very unknown but important part of the economy at the time. The main reasons as why this practice has gone relatively unnoticed throughout history has to do with the illiterate type of workers and smaller areas where this went on in the Empire, making it near impossible to transcribe this practice.

As we visited these ancient places, it was very interesting to see not only the areas where these people had to bring sheep to and from, but the very mountainous and rigid topography that the area provided them. I felt that this must have had a lot to do with some of the laws and regulations set in place for these workers. Some of these requirements i'd like to point out are how there were many checkpoints in different villages where grazers were forced to pay their way through the towns or else they weren't allowed to pass with their animals. This in my mind was able to happen largely due to the fact that the mountains forced them through one area, as it probably would've been too risky to take their livestock up through these dangerous hills and cliffs, and it could have been more profitable to just pay the tax a specific area might require. Another point I found interesting in this article is that people at the time did not fully understand who was forcing this workers to pay for the practice of transhumance, whether it was the empire itself, or a mixture of smaller local areas as well as the larger government of Rome. Again, I see this going back to the difficulty of transcription on how all of these practices were working at this time, and some of the information that may have been lost in history.

Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture of this article, I find it fascinating how factors like illiteracy can prevent major historical economic practices to be somewhat lost in time, as well as how other factors like geographical location can have a large impact on how these economic activities are practiced, and what types of regulations and barriers are put as a burden for these workers.

Slow Food

Initially, the slow food movement started as a sort of counter culture movement to fast food in a globalized world. Slow food is described as ‘good, clean, and fair food’. Think organic and locally sourced food. But it expands a little past that with an emphasis on local culture. Similar to this movement is the wine culture in Italy (vineyards vs industrial wine sector). The heart of this movement stems from a desire for good tasting food and an appreciation for the culture behind the food. One of the factors that helped the spread of slow food was the desire for many budding gourmands and individuals to get in touch with their cultural heritage. In Italy where the production of these goods existed in their backyard, the movement was able to spread through schools and wine tastings. One of the first slow food restaurants to open was the Osteria del Boccondivino – which would later grow into the headquarters for the revolution. Some of the core values promoted by the movement were region, tradition, simplicity, hospitality and reasonable prices. 

We visited a slow food market that embodied the spirit of the movement – the food wasn’t too complex, but the identity was clear and there was a clear love for the food by the staff. It’s a grassroots movement that’s been kept alive largely from some of the less privileged members of society like farmers. The movement has been criticized by both left-wing and conservative parties – some calling it hedonistic and (according to the article) the social elite didn’t like it because it would break down their monopoly on gastronomic practice and social status. This aspect is a repeated social phenomenon because middle and lower classes attempt to imitate upper class – I like this example because in the case of slow food, Italians have been able to create affordable alternatives to many food hobbies originally only available to social elites.

Internationally, slow food started to expand in the late 90’s thanks to the intrinsic competition between French and Italian cuisine. Universities and slow food fairs began to spread the movement even further. Slow food has a small sponsorship movement but that's where the movement gets complicated. Sponsorship is difficult in the slow food movement because of the desire to keep the ‘soul’ of the movement intact. There’s a concern that slow food becomes a buzz word like organic or sustainable. As a result, businesses can’t advertise the logo. Businesses that do follow the requirements to be a part of the movement can sponsor single events or recurring advertisements in slow food approved magazines. Wine and cheese producers are given a bit of leeway in sponsorship and have grown to be some of the largest sponsors after 30 years of practice.

The slow food organization no longer directly trades foodstuffs between producers and restaurants because of the required connection with private entrepreneurs. Additionally, sales within a non-profit organization can undermine the integrity of the organization (concern for profit margins etc.)

Largely, the slow food movement has came to be in regions where industrialization has brought prosperity and economic decline – inspiring young individuals to find alternative, affordable food production models. This has created a culture that loves food and challenges global trends of fast food.

Some photos of the market and the festival of St Anthony celebrated in Fontecchio

Tribes Chiefs and Transhumance

Today was our last morning in Fontecchio and we are now on our way to Amalfi. We stopped at a sheep farm in the mountains where we learned a little bit about what it takes to operate a sheep farm. This allowed us to compare how animal farming has changed throughout the years when we compare it to what we learned yesterday. Here is a picture of some of the sheep we saw.

We stopped yesterday at two churches and hiked up to a castle where we had an incredible view of the valley. Alessio told us about transhumance and how the little villages were all set up along the transhumance path. We learned about how this path affected the Abruzzo region and how villages were able to collect taxes from the shepherds that came through. Below is a picture from the castle.

The article I read today was called Tribes Chiefs and Transhumance. It discussed how transhumance works in different societies, tribes with chiefs, tribes without and areas without tribes or chiefs. The article specifically looked at examples from arid and semi-arid regions and one of the main points made was that areas where there is high risk, especially related to weather conditions, tend to have chiefs to help reduce uncertainty.

Markets for Land, Labor, and Capital

The first thing we did on 1/25/20 was go to see an archeological excavation site underneath someone’s house in Orvieto. We stepped inside and saw the ancient Etruscan caves, which date back to about 450 BC, and most of them in this site were used as garbage disposal areas. The holes were absolutely huge. After walking around a bit there we went into another room that had all of the artifacts that they had found in that site. Most of it was pottery, but there were also several animal bones.

Later that day we went on a tour of the more expansive part of the Etruscan cave system. We went in two separate caves, which were all man-made by the Etruscans, and there is evidence of them being used by people up until the mid-19th century. The first cave had a machine and different rocks that were used for crushing olives and making olive oil, while the second cave was mostly used for housing pigeons, which were a main source of food for the people of that time. It is evident that the Etruscans were very innovative people, as they found ways to avoid the toxic air that is present deep underground, which I thought was super intriguing.

Olive crushing machine in one of the caves

Our article is titled “Markets for Land, Labor, and Capital” and it was basically an economic history of those three things during the Middle Ages in North-central Italy and in the Low Countries. There have been land exchanges as early as the 8th century. Civil courts became important in regulating land transactions and keeping them all in a register. Leasing became a big part of the land market, as did sharecropping in some areas. Credit markets in the Low Countries and Italy became prominent before other regions in Europe. Some places in Europe sold land in exchange for labor. The wealthy people in both regions held the majority of the wealth, which I thought was interesting because for the most part it is still the same now.

Rural farmland outside of Orvieto

The role of Arabs in the introduction of paper into Europe

On this day in Amalfi we explored many interesting things, the first place we went was a paper mill where we learned how paper used to be made in Amalfi before the "high-tech" era of paper making.  It was very interesting to see how they took cloths and crushed them into little pieces, bleached them, soaked them, and finally combined them together to create a sheet of paper.  This relates to what our article was primarily based around, the introduction of paper into Europe.

Throughout history there has been many many different ways that things have been recorded, from clay tablets created by the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia.  To paintings and carvings into rocks that can be found all over the world.  China invented what we see as real paper today, they would use plant fibers, rags, tree bark, or fish nets to do it. 

So how did this spread to Europe?  There are many different hypothesis about how it made its way to Europe, a lot of people believe that it arrived somewhere around 710 A.D. through trade routes but the main hypothesis in the article has a much more interesting story.  Chinese and Arabs had arguments over land and had a battle called, "Atlakh near Talas" where in 751 A.D. Arab soldiers captured Chinese soldiers making them POW's (Prisoner of War).  The POW's happened to be paper makers and were forced to teach the Arabs the way.  From here they gained a monopoly on the paper making art and began trading with northern Africa and Spain then eventually the craft traveled all over Europe.

Pretty soon the production of paper was all over the middle east, and all over Europe.  My favorite quote from the text was that, "The question "Where was paper made?" was not as good of a question as "Where was paper not made?""

Economy and society of Pompeii

Visiting Pompeii was an amazing experience. We had the opportunity to take a guided tour and learn about all about the ancient city’s history and economy. (I was surprised by some of the aspects the town had before the Mt. Vesuvius eruption – for instance, they had their own version of fast food!) Our visit to Pompeii related to an article we read about the city’s economy and one of its main industries: agriculture.

The geography and landscape of Pompeii was important for this. Aside from its most major feature, Mt. Vesuvius, there were tree groves in the north and gardening plots in the south. Another area there is a large plain called Strabo, and the fertile soils there allowed them to produce grains and cereal products to sufficiently feed its own population (between 8,000 and 12,000 people).

There are a large number of villas in Pompeii, and they produced a lot of wine in the area. However, the wine they grew there wasn’t of a high quality, and they ended up importing wine from Sorrento as an alternative. Trade in Pompeii was important – it’s estimated that their economic territory was about twice as much as their political territory.

However, there are still new things being discovered (and disputed) about Pompeii. One topic that was up to debate in the article we read was the true number of villas in the ancient city. In some cases, alleged villa sites weren’t really villas. Some that were listed as such weren’t luxurious like typical villas during the time, and others were too badly damaged to tell. However, surveys are still being done in the area and more information will come to light.

Visiting Pompeii was a great experience, and I’m looking forward to our next stops on the trip: Orvieto and Rome!

Discovery of a Vineyard

This morning we left the Amalfi Coast and headed to Pompeii for a day trip on our way to Orvieto. Amalfi had stunning views and luckily we were able to stare out at the sea for the whole duration of a 4 hour hike with a lunch break in the middle. Before the hike, we went to a cheese factory and learned the process of making mozzarella cheese. While at the cheese factory, I got to experience braiding and knotting the cooked cheese. (P.S. The cheese guy said he would have hired me!) After the cheese was shaped, we got to eat the yummy fresh mozzarella! 

Today, we walked on a guided tour around the old port of Pompeii. It was interesting to see how modernized and advanced the city seemed to be for its time, until it was unfortunately destroyed by a volcanic eruption. The article I read was in relation to the Pompeii ruins. Specifically, the discovery and excavation of an ancient vineyard there. This vineyard is considered to be a very important discovery because it is an example of how one of the earliest known vineyards worked. The archaeologists determined that the wine was made in the house located in the corner of the Vineyard. All of the vine roots were planted in rows exactly four roman feet apart and there were two crossing paths spanning the center of the vineyard, splitting it into four sections. From determinations like those, the archaeologists can tell that many of the practices used by Pompeii wine makers today are the same as the historical practices. Lastly, the location of the vineyard near the amphitheater, towards the center of the city, on valuable land was surprising to historians and it had big implications for the study of ancient land use.   

To end our activities for the day, we ventured around the massive palace where Napoleon once resided. The palace took about 100 years to build and the ornate decorations, mostly gold, were beautiful. For a size reference, the guide said that around 200 people might have lived there at one time as the royal family had that many servants working for them. After the palace, we rode on the bus for a little over 3 hours to Orvieto, where we will now explore for the next few days! This trip is flying by and I don’t think anyone wants it to be over so soon. 

Pompeii's Complex Economy

Today we explored the remains from Pompeii and the extremely rich heritage that went along with the city. It was clear to see that a majority of the city was destroyed from the volcanic eruption that happened hundreds of years ago, but it was fascinating to learn how much researchers and archaeologists learned from the remains. The tour guide was able to paint a picture of the economy in all of our heads even though we weren’t entirely sure what we were looking at. 

Pompeii is considered to be a “gold mine” for archaeologists because there is so much about the city that we still don’t know and yet more and more is being discovered every day. For example, most of the roofs were destroyed after the volcanic eruption due to the extremely hot and thick ash that landed on them, but archaeologists were still able to determine what the room or house was used for. One place in particular was “fast food” places because they had very distinct features and many still remained intact. These buildings consisted of a stone or marble bar and have openings for food to be served and were quite frequent within the city limits. Each building had 2 or more layers of stone, brick, or concrete in order to act as a sort of insulation. This type of construction was described as a “soap factory” by archaeologists because it reminded them as a mixture of materials in order to produce the best outcome. 

In order to preserve Pompeii’s history and architecture, extra stability and framing needed to be added to the buildings. Many buildings and roads were not touched so that people could get a true understanding of what Pompeii looked like before the tragedy hit. Going on the tour today, we were able to see parts of Pompeii that are not entirely noticeable to the common eye. We learned about brothels and what actually went on between the prostitutes of the town. The people of the town used symbols to describe who lived in the house instead of a using words. In order to figure out where a prostitute lived, one would look for the male genitals on either the building or ground and it would be pointing in the location of their homes. All in all, Pompeii was completely different from what I expected but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to explore the amazing city. 

Gaining Honor as Husband’s Deputy

Today we traveled from Cavalese for our free weekend in Florence. We stopped on the way in Prato where we learned about letter writing. We saw many letters written by men and very few from women and children. Writing was most often done for business and bookkeeping purposes so the letters we saw that were written by children were done when they were training to work.

In Florence our group minus Professor Travis and Mark stayed at a hostel near the train station and split up to explore the city. We saw the Duomo, Piazzale Michelangelo and a few other places. We had some incredible meals, the best meal I had was our last night in Florence when we ate at a restaurant where we could see the pasta being made fresh right next to our table. Here are a few pictures from our time in Florence.

My article for today was about Margherita Datini and her husband Francesco. Margherita did all of the bookkeeping for her husband and she was able to write which was a very uncommon skill for a woman to have at that time. She learned how to write throughout her time handling her husbands business an had to deal with a lot of men questioning her abilities. This article relates to our time in Prato where we saw letters women wrote.

Sustainable Tourism in Amalfi

            

Old paper mill along path

              The beauty of the Amalfi coast attracts tourists from all over the world to admire the scenic landscapes. It is evident we are visiting in the off season at the moment as restaurants and stores are closed. I can’t help wonder what this city with tiny roads and pathways would look like during a busy tourist season.

              In order for the Amalfi coast to retain its unique community and scenic experience sustainable tourism needs to be the future. Sustainable tourism is when the environment is taken care of in the long run, economically convenient, and fair for the local communities. Amalfi definitely needs to take all three in consideration as they move forward in the future. A great aspect in this area that can attract tourists are the amazing pathways and routes that will take you through beautiful terrain. One such path that my class and I walked on took us by an old paper mill. The hike itself was beautiful, yet I can how hundreds or thousands of people can disrupt the path for others. Sadly, many of these wonderful routes throughout the coasts are in poor condition and are in direly need of maintenance. Even the signs to the routes are tough to spot. The local authorities should take action to improve the routes that many tourists enjoy walking every year.

              The Cinque Terre Coast in Liguria, Italy has taken a unique approach towards sustainable tourism that Amalfi may like to take a look at. In Liguria tourists have to park their cars at the beginning of the coast then either walk or take public transportation throughout the five cities. This enables the roads to be less crowded as well as the giving the locals the opportunity to keep their identity. With the upkeep of the routes around the coast Amalfi can become much more sustainable with its tourism. The preservation of the coast and routes will save history and heritage for the future generations of the local community.

View from path

              The Amalfi coast has a lot to offer due to its many different historical, religious, and natural context in the community. It would be wise for the area to utilize these different type of touristic attractions as economic resources in order to attract people. With that in mind the community also needs to instill sustainable tourism, so the coast is not ruined with unsafe tourism practices.

The Amalfi Terrace System

After going to the old paper mill, we all went on a hike through the beautiful cliffs of Amalfi. Walking through the cliffs we saw the remains of the terrace system that was put in place hundreds of years ago. We also saw the modern agriculture that is still going on in the same area. The majority of agriculture in the area we walked though was lemon trees. These lemons are Amalfi lemons, not just regular lemons. We walked along the small river that flowed down the mountain. Our guide explained that this river and several others have been utilized and modified for centuries in order to serve the community and increase productivity. He also explained that the rocks in these terraces are not traditionally fortified with concrete, which makes it even more impressive that they have lasted for so long. We saw some men along the hike who were making repairs to the stairs, which means that the area has people who take care of it regularly. 

The article for today was about the terrace system in Amalfi. Terraces here date back to the 10th century AD. The article argues that the best way to be sustainable in this area is to do periodical maintenance of the terraces. The biggest problems that the terraces face are climate change, soil erosion, heavy rainfall, and abandonment. Each of these is connected to one another and each one leads to the degradation of terraces, which is difficult and expensive to repair. In our class discussion we talked about whether or not our walking along the terraces was bad for them environmentally, especially considering their failing stability, which led into the next question of whether the situation was as bad if we consider that our walking along the terraces was a form of tourism, which could become a larger part of the Amalfi economy. People said that what we did specifically wasn't harming the terraces because we were only walking on the paths beside them. People also said that if tourism increased near terraces it could damage them more.

Picture of Amalfi terraces

Amalfi Citrus Farming

Today, on our first full day in Amalfi, we explored this small town and two of it's main sources of economic structure. The first of these places was a paper manufacturing mill. We discovered the old traditional ways of creating paper through old 13th century machinery that was super interesting! Chloe was even able to make her own piece of paper using one of these old processes.

Next, we went on to explore another rich tradition of Amalfi which is the citrus farming. We were led by our tour guide who also happens to be the owner of the hotel we're staying at. He and his family have lived in Amalfi for decades where his grandfather actually owned and worked on a citrus farm, while his grandmother also worked there by carrying 80 kilogram baskets of lemons on her head to transport them around town! We also learned from our tour guide that due to the limited area in the valley, they were forced to grow the citrus fruits on these hillsides we saw today, but in order to do so they had to carve out these step like banks in the walls of the hillside. They would dig out three meters wide for every one meter vertical, and this process was so strenuous and difficult that it would take some 10-15 years to carve out an average single farm for the area. This region truly is amazing with the views and agriculture for such a small area, and even more impressive watching some of the farmers at work today.

From our article about these citrus farms, we learned that citrus fruit growing is one of the largest categories in the Italian vegetable and fruit sector. Also since 2006, the value of production has amounted to more than 1 billion euros and has accounted for about 10% of the total value of vegetables and fruits produced. In Amalfi, oranges comprise roughly 54% of citrus production, 17% from lemons, and 19% from tangerines. Since the early 1990’s, land area covered by citrus fruits has decreased by 30% and the number of citrus farmers has decreased by about 45%. There were several reasons for this deterioration. One of them being the increasing competition of the citrus market has penalized Italian farmers, especially because their farms are relatively smaller. Also most farms are located in less favorable areas where economic and productive alternatives are limited. The article though was primarily revolved around a parametric estimation of technical and scale efficiencies of these Italian citrus farms. This essentially was a large dive into the statistics and data analysis behind these farms to see how efficient they run. The article found through various methods that the farmers in the Amalfi area had some relatively high inefficiency rates. We believe these inefficiency rates are due to this area and their farming being very traditional as it is passed through generations so the techniques have stayed very similar over the years with minimal innovation.

Nonetheless, the quality and smell, at least from my experience today, was unmatched and the views were just as good.

Marriage Markets

Last week for our two free days, our whole class got the opportunity to travel to Florence. It was really neat to be able to explore such a beautiful place, and I was truly in awe of some of the things I got to see. One reason why Florence draws such big crowds is for the impressive architectural style and grand design of all the buildings. One of the coolest things I got to see was the Duomo Cathedral. Not only was the sheer size of the structure impressive but also the incredible detail and craftsmanship. You can tell that when these great structures were built, Florence's economy must have been booming, and they didn't mind showing it.

This brings me to our presentation which was on marriage markets and dowries. This is a bit of a leap from my introduction but I think it is interesting to look at how differently things were back in medieval times regarding the economy and where people's priorities were at. So basically back in the early 1400's, if a woman was to be married, her parents would have to pay a man's family to let her marry him, which was called a dowry. All women were expected to provide a dowry and the greater the dowry usually meant the better the husband. These dowry's were not cheap seeing that it would cost an average household 10 years income for a decent dowry. However, the state had in place a program that would allow parents to invest a little bit of money into a dowry fun, accrue interest on that over the years and by the time their daughter was ready to be married they would have a decently sized dowry ready for her. 

Lastly the article talked about the marriage market which was simply enough a competition amongst women for who could get the best partner. There are many things that factor into this however. The most prominent factor has already been discussed which is the size of the dowry. Another important factor was the age and perceived beauty of the daughter. The last thing that was taken into account was the brides ability to preform housework duties, raise children, and possibly work on the farm. If a woman is highly ranked on all these non monetary factors then the dowry will be a lot cheaper. I think these marriage markets give a good idea of how the economy was valued back then and are a very interesting piece of history.      

      

2009 L'Aquila Earthquake

              We had a great opportunity to visit the city of L’Aquila to see firsthand the reconstruction that is taking place at a couple palaces and a church. In 2009, an earthquake devastated the region around L’Aquila and a decade later rebuilding is still in process for some buildings. I was in awe to hear that since the buildings are of historical value the construction workers are using the same pieces of the building that was destroyed. This explains why it is taking so long to rebuild the buildings. Plus, the workers are modifying the buildings to withstand future earthquakes.

              An article that I read for class, “Public Sector Corruption and Major Earthquakes: A Potentially Deadly Interaction,” argues that earthquakes do not kill people instead collapsing buildings do. The research team main goal was to demonstrate that corruption in a country will have a higher death toll from an earthquake since contractors will cut corners to save money on construction. The team spent time looking into 344 earthquakes worldwide from 1975-2003 of which three were in Italy. The average number of fatalities was 1,567 with an average level of corruption to be 4.5 on a scale of 1 (extreme corruption) to 7 (little corruption.) Italy had one of the higher death tolls compared to other countries and most likely this is since most of the buildings here was built centuries ago. This is why it is important that the contractors are using strong cement and reinforcing the buildings today to prevent future collapses.

              I was very interested by the fact that the palaces were still own within the same family that has had it for centuries. The intriguing aspect about their reconstruction is that the government is fully paying for it since they are historical buildings. There are so many buildings that need to be rebuilt I can’t help wonder how the people feel about their tax money going to a big palace while many houses are still strap together. In the pictures below you can see construction equipment lining a room in the palace while the other picture is of a regular house being supported by straps waiting to be rebuilt. Even though the earthquake was over ten years ago the region is experiencing the devastating aftermath of natural disasters.

Mountain economies in Southern Europe

Right now, we are visiting the town of Fontecchio and others nearby in the Abruzzo region of Italy. There is a lot of history here, and it’s been great to learn about this area. The most recent topic we’ve covered was discussed in an article we read about farming and agriculture in the Mediterranean, particularly in Italy during medieval times.

During this time, agriculture and the pastoral industry (raising livestock) were extremely important. However, in mountainous regions, it was difficult. The growth of plants and crops was inhibited by cold weather, and seasonal migration of livestock was required when summer drought forced them to move. Environmental constraints weren’t the only factors. Pastoralism is also impacted by social, economic, and political changes.

However, people were still able to develop the agricultural industry despite these challenges. One example is with the environment. Natural grassland for livestock is relatively rare, since there are limits of what types of vegetation can grow depending on altitude. Even if altitude isn’t an issue, there are also areas with limestone and marble rock which limits the formation of suitable soils. However, people were able to get around this by lowering treelines, which helped develop artificial meadows. These changes are generally attributed to how pastoralism became organized during medieval times.

Overall, the emergence and organization of pastoralism is greatly associated with historical change – whether it’s social, economic, political, or due to the environmental conditions of the area. These factors can set limits on or help spur future development, and they continue to impact the industry today.

The production of perfumes in antiquity

Today was the last full day we spent in Fontecchio, we traveled and saw two marvelous churches as well as hiked up to an ancient castle.  The article Jared an I presented on was titled The Production of Perfumes in Antiquity.  I discussed many different aspects of how perfumes were made and what they were used for in ancient times.

The article began by explaining how perfumes have been used for centuries, they began during the Geometric and Orientilizing periods, when they were solely produced in the Orient, Egypt, and eastern Greece.  It wasn't until the 7th century B.C. that widespread trade began opening up the idea of perfume to all.  In Italy there was a large difference between common peoples perfume and perfume of the aristocracy, usually we would be able to tell the difference between them because the more expensive perfumes would have much rarer ingredients such as rose petals, almonds, and in general items that did not originate in that area, whereas most common peoples perfumes would just be a base, usually olive oil.

Most perfume shops in Italy were based in the center of towns this includes cities like Delos, Paestum, and Rome.  There were ruins found in Delos that had press beds, these are what they used for pressing the ingredients together, they also found furnaces which we can assume were used to heat the ingredients which is the final stage of perfume creation. 

Overall perfume was very important to the Italian people, it was used for spiritual purposes, medicinal purposes, and beauty purposes.  

Roman Colonization

Amidst our journey from Fontecchio to Amalfi, we stopped along the way at the remnants of the old Roman Empire town of Saepinum. The town as it is today, is just a glimpse of what it previously was and is now simply a monument to be marveled at. However it is still easy to tell from the layout of the town what was important to the society at the time. The article that my compatriot Jake and I discussed this week was all about the root reasoning for Roman Colonization and how former Roman colonies such as this one, reflect that.

It was always academically agreed upon that Roman Colonization was done to display the power Rome had and bolster their Military's status. However, the findings from this article suggest that there may have been more economical and agricultural motives than previously thought. One of the defining traits of this town is the road system that runs directly through it and as it was discussed in the article, roads like these were originally thought to be used for the military, but it was actually found out that they were more so used for transhumance purposes, or the movement of a herd from one grazing land to the next. Which, as it was confirmed by our Italian Guide Alessio, the roads of Saepinum were used for just that. Along with that, it was also thought that Roman colonies were almost exact replica's to that of Rome, however in this town, although it has similar characteristics it is by no means an exact replica. These were just a few of the main ideas that led to a deeper understanding of Roman Colonization.

It was very interesting to see something that we have researched come to life when we visited this town. On top of that, it is crazy to think of how old a place like this is and all of the history that has happened right below our feet, which is a feeling that I have had many times throughout this trip so far and hope to have many more times as we get closer and closer to the end of the class!