The city of Livorno takes origin from a castle that was given as a feud to local noblemen.

Because of the victory of Pisa on Livorno in the Meloria battle occurred on 1284, the inhabitants of Livorno were obliged to subdue to the Pisans.

Later Pisan equipped Livorno with an efficient harbour when Pisan harbour started to collapse and they strenthened Livorno by fortified structures.

For a short time Livorno passed from Pisans to people from Genoa and in 1421 it was sold to the Florentine Republic becaming, the most important Tuscan harbour, under Cosimo I Medici's Gran Dukedom.

In 1575 Francesco I Medici, Cosimo I Medici's successor, it was started the enlargement of the harbour of Livorno and a complete restoring of the built-up area. The project of the urban plan was charged to Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608).

Works continued for a long time till Ferdinando I Medici decided to transform a part of the city into a great fortrees, named "New Fortrees".

In less than a century Livorno turned in an important Tuscan city for an increasing number of citizens and the main harbour in the Tyrrhenian Sea, gaining recognition in all Mediterranean Sea, and as an important slipway for English and Duch trades between Europe and Orient.

In 1629 the city expanded towards northern coast by using of Venetian building techniques: from here the name of the new built district, New Venetia.

Occupied by French army in 1795, Livorno was added to Napoleonic Empire until 1814.

In the first half of nineteenth century a great population increase determined an enlargment of the urban settlement towards the northen and southern boards.

In 1860 Livorno was added to the Reign of Italy by the King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoia.

Among the most important monuments to see in Livorno we point out here the Duomo (Cathedral), the monumento dei Quattro Mori (monument of Four Moors), the Fortezza (Fortrees), the Torre del Fanale (Tower of the Lighthouse), the Villa Fabbricotti (Fabbricotti Villa) and the Accademia Navale (Naval College) borned in 1881.

Livorno is the birth city of Carlo Bini (1806-1842), the famous writer whose Giuseppe Mazzini entrusted the diffusion of the program about the "Giovine Italia" in Tuscany, that was a Republican secret association.

Among the most interesting celebrations taking place in Livorno we point out here the traditional show, known as "Effetto Venezia" (Venetian Effect), periodically taking place between July and August in the eighteenth-century district named New Venetia.