Milan engulfs the lesser towns of Lombardy.

Verona absorbs Padua and Treviso.
Venice extends dominion over the Friuli and the Veronese conquests.
Strife and covetousness reign from the Alps to the Ionian Sea.

But it is a strife of living energies, the covetousness of impassioned and puissant units.

Italy as a whole is almost invisible to the student by reason of the many-sided, combative, self-centered crowd of numberless Italian communities.

Proximity foments hatred and stimulates hostility.
Fiesole looks down and threatens Florence.