Autostrada A3 (Italy)

The Autostrada A3 Napoli-Reggio Calabria is a motorway in the south of Italy, which runs from Naples to Reggio Calabria via Salerno. It runs through three regions: Campania (171 km), Basilicata (30 km) and Calabria (293,9 km).

Due to its notorious poor conditions of maintenance, and its difficult route, the motorway has been often taken as a symbol of the backwardness and economical problems of southern Italy. Italian historian Leandra D'Antone, although underlying the engineering effort needed to overcome the construction problems, has defined it "a true Italian shame". ...una vera e propria «vergogna italiana», in , book about Salerno-Reggio Calabria

History

The first stretch of the road to be completed was the Naples-Pompeii, finished on 22 June 1929. The connection to Salerno was completed on 16 July 1961.

In 1964 the Italian government decided to built a motorway which connected the rest of Italy to Calabria, so far considered a kind of "Third Island" (together with Sicily and Sardinia), due to the nature of its sharp reliefs, which made problematic to reach the region. The new motorway was built in a total of 8 years, the works being delivered on 13 June 1974.

The road built was more similar to a sub-standard freeway (Italian: strada statale, "state road") than to the other autostrade (motorways) in Italy. l'autostrada, completamente statale e senza pedaggio, con le......
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