However, quite apart from the energy gained by their combustion they remain, and always will remain, the basic raw material for all organic chemistry.
Besides being fuel, they are the building blocks of all organic chemistry.
But the imposing weight of its past is lightened by the lively cosmopolitan studentry of its two universities (its state university, one of Italy's largest, was founded in 1270; its international division was set up by Mussolini) and its contemporary popularity as the sight of one of Europe's most important jazz festivals each July.