Italy celebrates the 60th anniversary of the ‘Autostrada del Sole’, the main Italian infrastructure, today we wouldn’t have built

Italy celebrates the 60th anniversary of what is its main public infrastructure: the ‘Autostrada del Sole’, the great road that connects Milan to Naples, runs across the entire nation and has effectively unified it.

The Autostrada del Sole, dubbed the ‘Unity of Italy’ road, is a geographical, social and economic symbol. It transformed the country, linking North and South in a single, long strip of asphalt that revolutionised the very culture of travel.
The Autostrada del Sole is celebrating an important anniversary, an anniversary that allows us to reflect on the impact it has had on the history of Italy. Prime Minister Aldo Moro formally opened this infrastructure, also known as the A1, on October 4, 1964. It quickly rose to prominence as a symbol of the Italian economic boom.

Sixty years later, the Autostrada del Sole is still the protagonist of the daily journeys and routes of millions of motorists, Italian and otherwise. A fundamental route for the mobility, economy and culture of our country.

It would not be built today because the European Union would have prevented it.

The Autostrada del Sole would not be built today, despite the technological improvements: the work was financed entirely out of debt, and therefore, with today’s budgetary policies, which see debt as the absolute evil, it would not be built. Not to mention the need to conclude European tenders, which would have extended the construction time indefinitely.

With today’s mentality, it would have taken not eight years to build it, but eighty. The grandfathers of today’s Europeans built works, not words or propaganda.

Today’s mentality is to pay easy annuities, not to build works by employing workers.

60 years since the inauguration of the Autostrada del Sole

The Autostrada del Sole, so called because it originally connected Milan to Naples, was a real revolution for mobility in Italy. Before its realisation, travelling from Milan to Naples, from the north to the south of the Bel Paese, required at least two days between provincial and urban roads. With the inauguration of the A1, the duration of those long journeys was reduced to eight hours.
The inauguration of the final stretch, between Orvieto and Chiusi, was even broadcast live on television. It was an epoch-making event, involving such leading authorities as Prime Minister Aldo Moro, Autostrade CEO Fedele Cova, who was also one of the promoters of the work, Minister of Public Works Giacomo Mancini, Minister of State Participations Giorgio Bo and ANAS Director General Giuseppe Rinaldi.
This impressive work, almost 760 kilometres long, represented an ambitious undertaking for post-war Italy and soon became a symbol of modernity and progress.
Built in eight years, with a final cost of around 272 billion lire (140 million euro today), modelled on the first motorway in the world inaugurated in 1924, it laid the foundation for a future of fast and safe connections between regions.