We all know Italy is shaped like a boot. But when was it first discovered? I doubt Ancient Romans or their contemporaries had accurate enough maps (or, for that matter, tall boots with heels on them).
hi, always room for more info into this (particularly regarding the development of high-heeled boots), but you may be interested in responses here
and a little discussion on the cartography issue that you suggest
Apart from what /u/Searocksandtrees has already linked, which I think you'll find useful, I'd add that the Romans knew about tall boots just fine and they had perfectly good maps. We have extremely detailed works by geographers that list distances and calculations, from which we can reconstruct what a Roman map might've looked like, though no ancient copies have survived. For example, from the information presented in Ptolemy late medieval maps were drawn up that indicate that, at least in the Mediterranean and even going east a fair distance the Romans had quite a good idea of how the world looked, with accurate shapes and distances
