Lazio lies in the centre of the Italian peninsula and is said to provide the divide between the north and the south of Italy, not only economically, but also geographically. Northern Lazio is home to a green, rolling landscape with pretty hilltop villages, very similar to Tuscany and Umbria that it borders, while southern Lazio is far wilder and more sparsely populated.
Lazio is not characterised by one particular geographical trait and its landscape varies greatly. There is the Tyrrenhian coast, the inland plains, and then rolling hills, rising to the higher, steeper mountain ranges of the Latium Preapennines and part of the Apennines.
Amongst the more mountainous areas lie huge volcanic lakes. The climate is typically Mediterranean although in the mountainous zones, the winter can be considerably colder than the coastline and there are several ski resorts popular with the Romans at weekends. These mountains provide protection in the winter from the cold northerly winds, making the lowlands more temperate than other neighbouring areas. The vegetation varies considerably with the landscape. The low costal regions tend to be covered in Mediterranean scrub and also farmed on a larger scale basis while the hills are far greener and have great forests of sycamore, oak, elm and chestnut. Above 1000m and stretching up the sides of many of the mountains are magnificent beechwood forests. Large areas of the hillsides are farmed, although the characteristics of this landscape make it unsuitable for large-scale modern-day farming and has helped maintain the traditional character of the agriculture in this area, which is limited mainly to vegetable and fruit production. This can be seen in the vineyards and olive groves covering the hills and Lazio is home to some of the finest olive oil in Italy (it has one of only three regions in Italy designated DOC for olive oil production). |
