Una lettera odeporica di Cosimo De Giorgi

While the first half of the nineteenth century saw the inauguration of a penchant for local and circumscribed itineraries, Cosimo De Giorgi, in a long and detailed letter to a friend from Pisa (later given to the press), sets out his brief experience of a railroad journey from Bari to Taranto. It is a report that skillfully combines technical and naturalistic information about the territory with sketchy descriptions of the places, but it is also embellished with notes on the author's state of mind and with his erudite observations. The essay aims to frame this lesser-known text by the eclectic Salento author within the framework of nineteenth-century odeporics by noting its characters and specificities.