The early history of the Roman Empire was for a long time shrouded in legend. According to the myth, the defeated army of Troy crossed the Mediterranean Sea in the 8th century BC with their prince, Aeneas. Upon arrival on the shores of Latium, a new settlement was founded, one which would later be called, Rome, after the bolder of the twins Romulus and Remus, descended from the original Trojan refugees. Historically, however, the Etruscans and the Greeks were the Italian peninsula’s first known inhabitants. And the town of Rome, itself, developed out a group of separate villages perched at the top of the Alban hills. The small towns converged along the fertile banks of the river Tiber in the lower valley between them, and thus formed Rome. By 250 BC Rome had dominated the entire peninsula, driven out the Etruscans, and destroyed the Greeks.

With the end of the Roman Empire Italy had not been vanquished, but continued to hold an important place both as a major seat of Christianity and the Church and as a key thoroughfare for trade in the region. Venice was founded and grew up a prime commercial seaport, while Florence became a center for merchant banking. Bologna brushed off the ghost of Rome and with the establishment of its university in 1060 emerged as a focus of learning. Medieval Italy was a period of intense squabbling between northern city-states, whose vain attempts to outdo one another in everything from political influence and military might to taste in art and the heights of towers became the forerunner of the Renaissance. Rather than acting as an impediment to progress, such petty rivalries gave impetus to the finest flowering of culture Italy had yet seen.

Campanilismo, or regional attachment, even today is very much a part of Italian culture. It was perhaps only by a strong impulse in some circles that the country was brought together as a unified whole in 1870. Generally three political actors are credited with the unification of Italy, Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi, and their names now properly display on street signs of major viale throughout the country along with other famous Italian statesmen. Laws made in the Italian capital of Rome, however, can still tend to be disfavored and protested in subtle ways in regions elsewhere in the country. Italy is notorious for its unsteady governments and tarnished political leaders, who continue to find it a difficult task in deed to win the favor of the Italian people.