ABSTRACT
Italy has always attracted foreigners, from ancient Greek settlers to present-day whistle-stop tourists, from pilgrims to mercenaries, from artists to romantic poets. Over the centuries, it has retained its hold over the imagination of the western world. The making of the landscape, as much as the building of the cities, were the result of countless generations of human endeavour. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the cities of northern and central Italy, as much as the countryside, had already acquired that characteristic physiognomy of towers and civic buildings, of markets and economic bustle, which amazed all foreign visitors and distinguished Italy from the rest of Europe. The independence of the communal cities of northern and central Italy was essential to their economic success.
