Actually the Italy-Austria border is a pretty mountainous area with a bunch of national parks. The only cities of note are Udine and Trieste, but altogether I doubt you have more than 5% of the population (and google maps suggests Venzone is around 20km from the border). So I think it’s not an altogether arbitrary suggestion to make.
That’s not the Austrian border, that’s the Slovenian border. It’s 40km from Venzone to Žaga, and 70km to Unterthörl.
My claim was that 60-70% of Italy is 70km away from the border of Italy. Almost every major city is on the coastline, with the exception of Florence. At its widest, it seems Italy is only about 350km wide.
EDIT: There seems to be a slightly shorter route due north, but it’s only about 5km shorter.
In any event, counting coasts as borders is not something Italians would usually do. I’d think it’s much easier to escape a country undetected (at least in the Schengen area) from a land border than from the coast. I’d say that P(x is trying to flee Italy|x is in Venzone) >> P(x is trying to flee Italy|x is in Rome), or Naples, or Milan, or indeed most (by population) of Italy.
I’m curious, would it even matter if he had escaped to Austria? I was under the impression that the EU had fairly tightly integrated law enforcement & extradition within the Schengen area precisely because it’s so easy to move around, and that being in Austria would be a very minimal obstacle for the Italian police.
Actually the Italy-Austria border is a pretty mountainous area with a bunch of national parks. The only cities of note are Udine and Trieste, but altogether I doubt you have more than 5% of the population (and google maps suggests Venzone is around 20km from the border). So I think it’s not an altogether arbitrary suggestion to make.
That’s not the Austrian border, that’s the Slovenian border. It’s 40km from Venzone to Žaga, and 70km to Unterthörl.
My claim was that 60-70% of Italy is 70km away from the border of Italy. Almost every major city is on the coastline, with the exception of Florence. At its widest, it seems Italy is only about 350km wide.
EDIT: There seems to be a slightly shorter route due north, but it’s only about 5km shorter.
Milan, Turin and Bologna aren’t, though the former two are relatively close to the Swiss border.
“Almost every”. I did not say Florence was the only exception.
Milan and Turin are well within 70km of Switzerland and France, though, so I don’t know why you mention them.
This is why I don’t comment as much on LW as I used to.
I was just nit-picking, sorry.
In any event, counting coasts as borders is not something Italians would usually do. I’d think it’s much easier to escape a country undetected (at least in the Schengen area) from a land border than from the coast. I’d say that P(x is trying to flee Italy|x is in Venzone) >> P(x is trying to flee Italy|x is in Rome), or Naples, or Milan, or indeed most (by population) of Italy.
I’m curious, would it even matter if he had escaped to Austria? I was under the impression that the EU had fairly tightly integrated law enforcement & extradition within the Schengen area precisely because it’s so easy to move around, and that being in Austria would be a very minimal obstacle for the Italian police.
Good point.