The article is a summary of a report presented during the seminar "Il mare risorsa prioritaria del Corridoio Adriatico" (The sea as the primary resource of the Adriatic Corridor), organised in November 2001 by the Pesaro and Urbino Chamber of Commerce. The transport of lorries by Ro-Ro ships across the Italian seas (also known as "Sea Highways") is a widely- discussed topic in Italy. Indeed, many stakeholders believe that the use of sea ways is a truly useful way of lifting the burden of traffic off the highways. The article emphasises the need to evaluate the real potential of Ro-Ros in cutting the highway traffic in the Italian regions facing the Adriatic, and separating Italian domestic transport from the international one. Further, the article includes other observations that emerged during the debate on the "Sea Highways": it advises against the drawing up the "sea highways " strategy on the basis of the comparison between transit times in road and sea transport, and stresses the need to concentrate the Ro-Ro infrastructures in few ports. The article concludes with considerations on the need to impose, in international traffic (towards Greece and Turkey), rigid roles for each Adriatic port, in order to avoid the Italian roads being used by foreign lorries. The latter, when crossing over from Central Europe and the Mediterranean countries, prefer to use - for economy's sake - the ports in Southern Italy instead of those placed in the North, thus increasing instead of cutting down road traffic.
