Bolgheri is located on the west coast of Italy on the Laverno-Roma motorway. The motorway was being built at that time by the Italians who, like their ancestors, the Romans, are tremendous road builders. When they came near Bolgheri, the denizens of Bolgheri looked at their plans and objected because the intention was to go through the avenue of cypresses. The engineers said they had to go through other cypresses on previous occasions but they were told that these were the cypresses Dante wrote about in the poem every Italian school child has to learn. The Italians, who have some respect for national monuments, decided this avenue of cypresses was a national monument of cultural importance, so the builders went around them. If one looked at that motorway now, one would never know, thanks to the skill of the engineers, that any sort of diversion had to be made. It is an example of how a motorway can be constructed while preserving a national monument.