#Despite being someone who mostly focuses on anything pre unification

[temtamtom]

Hey! It’s me again, asking about Italy brothers headcanons :D I’m really curious what states you think the boys represented pre-unification. Feli seems obviously Venice (I mean it’s in his name and everything), but my friend and I have been debating about Romano. Cause the show just says “the south,” and Spain ruled over Naples & Sicily, so I said Naples/Sicily/both. My friend said Rome/Papal States? I’m sure we both sound like clueless Americans but I wanted to hear what you think!

Hiya! Nice to have you back!

Okay so, embarrassingly, I actually typed out a really really long response to this question going over a bunch of history and how I reinterpret it into various headcanons (especially for Romano tbh). However, I don’t think I’ll post that right now because I want to take my time and do some extra research! I’m sorry if this is a disappointment, but there are a few things I want to wrap my head around still, and I want to make sure I express myself as clearly and concisely as possible. Especially since Italian history pre-unification is so long and convoluted, and my thoughts get very jumbled from this topic. There's so so much to take into consideration that I end up looking like this:

To sum up everything I think and headcanon at the moment: I think Veneziano used to be The Republic of Venice, while Romano used to be, in a way, both Sicily and Naples (and now you can see why my original post was starting to get pretty damn long).

In terms of the Papal States: I personally don't see Romano as the Papal States. I actually have my own OC that fills in this role. I understand the line of reasoning, though. In the same way you would characterize Veneziano as Venice, you'd want Romano to be Rome. But I personally like to have Romano's story deeply rooted in Southern Italian history and culture. I just can't imagine him any other way!

In the meantime I'll work on a more in-depth post, and hopefully it'll see the light of day. Hopefully TAT