Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Charlemagne crosses the Alps into Italy, fighting the Lombards and having his ownership
of Tuscany, Emilia, Venice and Corsica confirmed by Pope Hadrian I.
1080
Henry IV deposes Pope Gregory VII for the second time, installing Clement III in his place
and marching against Gregory's supporter Matilda of Tuscany, confiscating her territory.
1082
Florence picks a fight with Siena over the ownership of the Chianti region, starting a bitter
rivalry that will last the next 400 years.
1136
Scrappy, seafaring Pisa adds Amalfi to its list of conquests, which included Jerusalem,
Valencia, Tripoli and Mallorca, plus colonies in Constantinople and Cairo, among others.
1167
Siena's
comune
(town council) establishes a written constitution, declaring that elected terms
should be short and money should be pretty; it's soon amended to guarantee Sienese pub-
lic boxing matches.
1314-21
Dante Alighieri writes his
Divina Commedia
, told in the first person, using Tuscan dialect in-
stead of the usual formal Latin, and peppered with political satire, pathos, adventure and
light humour.
1348-50
Black Death ravages Tuscany, wiping out approximately two-thirds of the population in
dense urban areas. It doesn't stop there: further outbreaks are recorded until 1500.
1375-1406
Colluccio Salutati serves as chancellor of Florence, promoting a secular civic identity to
trump old feudal tendencies; it's a bold, new model of citizenship for Europe that occasion-
ally even works.
1378
The Florentine
signoria
(city council) ignores a petition from the city's
ciompi
(wool carders),
who want guild representation: cue the Revolt of Ciompi, an ultimately unsuccessful demo-
cratic uprising.
