ABSTRACT
The vehicular axis of the Adriatic Highway completed in 1965 made the coastline accessible and thus available for construction. It simultaneously initiated the first extensive planning document that was meant to steer the future tourist development of the region. The route brought about a change in the dominant character of leisure activities, shifting the focus away from vacationing in coastal cities toward an intensified experience of sea and sun in tourist resorts scattered along its length. The hotel construction regularly included extensive landscaping and careful placement of outdoor leisure facilities necessary for negotiating the inaccessibility of the harsh terrain. Conceived as spaces of predominantly European tourist refuge from the cities, these sites thus began to contribute to the leisure opportunities of the surrounding communities. In opposition to them, but synchronous with the hotel construction, was the rise of unplanned tourist accommodation along the Highway. While this complementary construction activity is regularly blamed for the overexploitation of the coast, it can be argued that this process was the main driver of the drastic improvement in the quality of life of the residents. This chapter tackles the various scales of modernization of the Adriatic coast along with their coexisting and ever-evolving conflicts and paradoxes.
