Pitigliano

Pitigliano is the town/city in Italy that the Romagnolis of Delaware and SE Pennsylvania are from. Here is a bit on the history of this area:

The municipality of Pitigliano extends for 102,89 square kilometres in a hilly zone in the province of Grosseto on its borders with Lazio. Seigneurial dominion of the Aldobrandeschi and the Orsini it was Vicariate Seat in modern times and, from 1660 Seat of the Sovana Bishops. Its territorial borders have remained relatively unchanged through the centuries.

Of very ancient origins Pitigliano was an Etruscan and Roman city. Sometimes it is identified also with the vicus Torianu from the Longobarda era, but reliable historic attestations only go back to 1061, the year in which Pope Noccol? II confirmed the possession of the parish church of Pitigliano to the Bishop of Sovana. Even though the history of the location is obscure until the beginning of the XIII century, it is known for certain that the castle had belonged for some time to the Aldobrandeschi Counts, who defended it at length from the territorial expansion attempts by the municipality of Orvieto.

In 1274, with the act of division of the Aldobrandesca county, Pitigliano was assigned to the branch of the Counts of Sovana, who had already made it centre of their Dukedom. In 1293, with the marriage between Romano Orsini and Anastasia Aldobrandeschi, began a long period of the Orsini ruling over the county of Pitigliano and Sovana, comprising also the castles of Sorano, Saturnia, Manciano, Orbetello and Piancastagnaio. During the 1300s the Orsini managed to maintain the county territory integral, safeguarding it from the expansionistic aims of Orvieto and Siena, until in 1455, at the end of long series of wars provoked by the Sena republic in the preceding forty years, they witnessed their dominion being reduced to only the territories of Pitigliano and Sorano. Only in 1562 did an uprising of the pro Medicea people put an end to the Orsini domination. At the beginning of the XVII century Pitigliano became part of the Grand Duchy of Toscana. The community saw the birth of Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788) landscape artist and founder of the Royal Pictorial Academy of London. In the Giolittiano period Pitigliano developed a strong rural movement, which brought about, among other things, the cultivation of fallow lands. During the resistance partisan formations operated in the territory.

This information was taken off the web from a site called Terra Di Toscana

Romagnoli .us/.info/.biz

Pitigliano