Historical Outline for Emilia-Romagna

History in these parts goes back over 3,500 years, but the ‘region’ of Emilia-Romagna is a political newborn, created only in the 1970s when all of Italy was divided into regions in a long-overdue move towards decentralization. Some of Italy’s regions have an obvious historical or geographical identity – Tuscany, the Veneto or Sicily for example. This one doesn’t.

Until relatively recently, the ‘Emilian’ part of the Po valley was considered part of Lombardy, while the Romagna followed a different destiny, first as part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna after the breakup of the Roman Empire, and then in the Papal State. The ‘border’ between Emilia and Romagna is generally considered to be the little river Santerno that flows by Imola – but ask the question of a few locals and you’re likely to get a few different answers.

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