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The essay studies the maps produced in the 15th and early 16th centuries by Venice and other states with reference to water management, exploitation of agricultural resources, administrative organization, border control and war strategies. It also considers the extraordinary maps of Southern Italy produced by the Aragonese government between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (known only thanks to their 18th-century copies), which bring out a grandiose and organic general plan of topographic survey by compass and astronomical observations.

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Different perspectives describe different characteristics related to the places of daily life: “territories” spatial-geographical areas with material and concrete dimensions, “landscape” environmental areas as perceived by the inhabitants, with cognitive, affective, social and aesthetical meanings. In the environmental psychology the term “place identity” means the aspects of the image of Itself in relationship to the meanings and in partnership values to a physical environment.

[EN] The research about Tyrrhenian Tuscany fortifications – more than 150 structures studied with Anna Guarducci and Marco Piccardi – is a multidisciplinary and complex topic that requires methods and sources typical of geographical-historical research. This because of various environmental and landscape peculiarity of Tyrrhenian Tuscany and because of her historical sequence from Medieval Age to nowadays. In Tyrrhenian Tuscany – thanks to its strategic and business importance – although low population, cereal and pastoral “latifondo”, the marshes and few settlements, a dense fortifications system was gradually developed until the unification of Italy. This study starts from the first researches on Maremma fortifications on Seventies-Eighties of last century, and they also begins from following studies concerning all coastal area or single places, buildings and small areas. This research take into consideration those researchs methods and subjects. But because of the study area extension a larger range of printed and unpublished sources was analyzed. The set of documents was composed by maps, iconographies, photographies, aerial photographies, territorial and literaly studies, etc. The political and administrative fragmentation of Tyrrhenian Tuscany explains the position of the sources (about fortifications) in libraries and archives of Tuscany (Massa, Lucca, Firenze, Pisa, Livorno, Piombino, Siena, Grosseto, Orbetello), of Italy (Genova, Modena, Roma e Napoli) and of foreign countries (Simancas, Parigi, Vienna e Praga); and in municipal and state or authorithy archives too. The partition expalains also the local and regional nature of the most studies. All these documents are often thematic and incomplete, and have been completed with the study of the present contexts (toponyms, buildings and direct evidences of inhabitants), in order to identify and locate the fortifications. This comparative analysis, together with measurements allowed by cartography, has allowed the recognition of the position of more than 30 towers have now disappeared or reduced to ruin.

This volume was created for the two-year program "Programma biennale delle celebrazioni vespucciane (1512-2012)", funded by the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze. It is an easy-to-read tool for citizens and students: at the centre of the discussion, with Ilaria Luzzana Caraci, there are the life and works of the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci. The emphasis is also put on the economic and scientific contents relating to Florence between the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Tuscan city was among the most important in Europe in terms of financial, commercial and artistic-cultural weight, thanks to the intertwining between the humanistic geographical and cartographic culture and the resourceful world of merchants (as Giuliano Pinto shows), together with the journeys to the fabulous and rich destination of 'elsewhere' (namely the East and West Indies) discussed by Francesco Surdich, Francesco Guidi Bruscoli and Angela Orlandi. Claudia Borgioli, Leonardo Rombai and Annalisa D'Ascenzo discuss the globes from Florence which guided the navigations, together with the figures which would later be inspired by Vespucci and Verrazzano.Il volume, realizzato per il "Programma biennale delle celebrazioni vespucciane (1512-2012)", su finanziamento dell'Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, e uno strumento di facile lettura per cittadini e studenti: al centro della trattazione, con Ilaria Luzzana Caraci, stanno la vita e le opere del navigatore Amerigo Vespucci. Vengono altresi messi a fuoco i contenuti economici e scientifici riferibili alla Firenze tra Quattro e Cinquecento – quando era tra le piu importanti citta d'Europa per peso finanziario, commerciale ed artistico-culturale – con la cultura geografico-cartografica di matrice umanistica che s'intreccia con l'intraprendente mondo dei mercanti (come dimostra Giuliano Pinto), insieme con i viaggi verso la favolosa e ricca meta di 'altrove' – le Indie orientali e occidentali – trattati da Francesco Surdich, Francesco Guidi Bruscoli ed Angela Orlandi. Claudia Borgioli, Leonardo Rombai e Annalisa D'Ascenzo considerano i mappamondi fiorentini che guidarono le navigazioni, insieme con le figure ispirate poi da Vespucci e Verrazzano.

Nell’ambito di un incontro scientifico, non celebrativo né agiografico, ma di confronto e ragionamento sul lascito di Massimo Quaini e sulle prospettive future degli studi che si pongono fra la geografia e la storia, il saggio analizza il suo pensiero e gli scritti da lui elaborati nell’ambito delle attività scientifiche del CISGE relativamente al tema dei viaggi e delle esplorazioni. Sebbene Quaini abbia parlato raramente di esplorazioni (se intese in senso letterale, ma con l’accezione di perlustrazioni nel sapere geografico le cose cambiano) e frequentemente di viaggi, direttamente e soprattutto indirettamente, tanto che si può delineare un itinerario fra i viaggi “intellettuali” da lui compiuti. Non avventure odeporiche classiche, ma percorsi virtuali dipanati in scritti, relazioni, sollecitazioni scientifiche ed epistemologiche. Un esercizio utile a costruire un capitolo della «geografia storica della geografia» italiana.