Once I read a post about the only very narrow street in a native city of the blogger and it made me laugh. Really narrow are the medieval streets in Italy and France. Streets, where one person can pass with great problems (S.Paul in France) and if a car could pass there, it was an enormous avenue.
All those were normal rules of city building in Europe in that time to protect residents from the bandits of all sorts. The life was too dangerous. Every family had more than 10 children and when they were big, the family has not possibilities to give them to eat, to give them a house ecc. So all those man without earth and money made their fortune in the way they could. Mostly killing others to take their goods and soil.
In the times before Christ, when there were places without population, Greeks, Italics, Sannits could send those youngs all together in far countries, where they could find free soil, but in Middle Ages it was not possible more. So Vikings or Normans and European guys (remember crusades) went in southern countries to kill residents and to become residents themselves. Logically they killed only men (normally).
20-30 years later (or 5-10 too) the other wave of "disherid" youngs came in the same places. But the residents were ready to accieve them...
This is the reason of the narrow streets.
Photos below I made more bright.
The last photo has naturally light.
Imagin ventilation of the streets and how they are wet...
And this is a really narrow street: one-man large (look down)
Read More:
Visiting Medieval Salerno
