Riviera

RIVIERA (Italian riviera—coast), the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in France, in the department of Alpes-Maritimes, and further into Liguria (Italy). This part of the Mediterranean coast is located between 43.5° and 44.5° N latitude and is protected from the north by the Maritime Alps (in France) and the Ligurian Alps and Apennines in Italy. The climate is warm, the vegetation is subtropical. The average winter temperature lies within the range of +9.3° to +12° [Celsius] without large fluctuations. Atmospheric pressure is predominantly high, without fluctuations. The prevailing direction of winds in winter is from the shore, i.e., from the north (or north-east and north-west). This prevailing wind is distinguished by great dryness, as a result of which dry, sunny weather prevails in the winter months. Only rarely do short, heavy rains occur. These climatic conditions, as well as the beautiful relief of the terrain—a heavily indented coastline, in places with picturesque cliffs, framed from the north by the steps of rising mountains—and the luxurious vegetation have long made the Riviera a favorite place for winter recreation, as well as a region for horticulture (cultivation of flowers and southern fruits), which has further increased the attractiveness of the Riviera as a resort. The French Riviera is of the greatest importance, while the Italian is significantly less so, where there is only one resort of major importance—Nervi (see). As for the French Riviera, it is entirely covered from the city of Cannes to the Italian border by a chain of hotels, villas, boarding houses, and sanatoriums. In this chain, the largest and most renowned resort centers are Cannes, Nice, and Menton. Cannes is a small town located right by the sea with a relatively gentle shore, framed from the north by a chain of hills. Patients are recommended to live either right by the sea (for scrofulous patients, for lymphatics) or, conversely, on the hills behind the city (for those easily excitable, for tuberculous patients, and those with a tendency to bronchitis). Nice is the largest resort center (over 100,000 inhabitants), currently visited not so much by patients as by tourists from the ranks of the largest European and American bourgeoisie, who are attracted here by the famous roulette located nearby in Monaco with all its surroundings—the richest restaurants, chic prostitution, and a brilliant carnival, on which the municipality of Nice does not hesitate to spend large sums of money annually. Continuously rushing express trains and an equally continuous stream of automobiles, noisy festivities, and restaurants and cafes open around the clock—all this makes Nice a completely unsuitable place for patients, and patients have long been pushed out from here to the surrounding villas, located far from the sea, on the hills rising around the city. Menton is a small town, located in a horseshoe shape on the shore of a small bay, with beautiful places for walks. Indications for the entire Riviera: pulmonary tuberculosis in a compensated or subcompensated form, scrofula, anemia, neurasthenia, chronic bronchitis. The Riviera is especially indicated for convalescents and for persons prone to mental depression. Far-advanced forms of pulmonary tuberculosis, especially with a tendency to hemoptysis, are contraindicated. RIGIDITY—see Tonus.