Central Italy encompasses four of the country's 20 regions: The easternmost and southernmost parts of Lazio (Cittaducale, Amatrice, Sora, Cassino, Isola del Liri, Sperlonga, Fondi, Gaeta and Formia districts, as well as the islands of Ponza and Ventotene) are sometimes connected to southern Italy (the so-called Mezzogiorno) for cultural and historical reasons since they were once part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and southern Italian dialects are spoken.

[5] During the Renaissance, the papal territory expanded greatly, and the Pope became one of Italy's most important secular rulers as well as the head of the Church.

At their zenith, the Papal States covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, which includes Rome; Marche; Umbria; Romagna; and portions of Emilia.

[10] Francis Stephen of Lorraine, a cognatic descendant of the Medici, succeeded the family and ascended the throne of his Medicean ancestors.

His descendants ruled and resided in the grand duchy until its end in 1859, barring one interruption, when Napoleon Bonaparte gave Tuscany to the House of Bourbon-Parma (Kingdom of Etruria, 1801–1807) and later annexed it directly to the First French Empire.

[14] In the Early Middle Ages, Central Italian extended north into Romagna and covered all of modern-day Lazio, Abruzzo, and Molise.

[15] In addition, the dialect of Rome has undergone considerable Tuscanization from the fifteenth century onwards, such that it has lost many of its central Italian features.

Standard Italian is based on Tuscan, specifically on its Florentine dialect, and it became the language of culture throughout Italy[18] because of the prestige of the works by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini.

Corsican on the island of Corsica and the Corso-Sardinian transitional varieties spoken in northern Sardinia (Gallurese and Sassarese) are classified by scholars as a direct offshoot from medieval Tuscan,[19] even though they now constitute a distinct linguistic group.

It is the oldest in the Apennine Mountains and the second-oldest in Italy, with an important role in the preservation of endemic species such as the Italian wolf, Abruzzo chamois and Marsican brown bear.

Pristine landscapes serve as one of the primary motivators for tourists to visit central Italy, although there are others, such as a rich history of art.

[25] Then include peas, globe artichokes and fava beans, shellfish, milk-fed lamb and goat, and cheeses such as pecorino romano and ricotta.

[27] Special dishes are often reserved for different days of the week; for example, gnocchi is eaten on Thursdays, baccalà (salted cod) on Fridays, and trippa on Saturdays.