Italy, ca. 1000, our timeline, a reasonable guess for what shape the Italies are in.
Italy is a peninsula in Europe, in our world as well as the Girl Genius universe. The main action of the strip has never visited it. According to the not-entirely-canonical Europa Wulfenbach map which the Foglios published, most of what is northern Italy in our world, those portions just south of the Alps, lies within the borders of the Pax Transylvania, including the cities of Milan and Venice (or the former site of Venice, as it has sunk). Genoa, if it exists, is outside the Wulfenbach Empire.
Within the strip itself, the late Professor Guylian Consolmagno was Italian, as is Sofia, known to fans of Master Payne's Circus of Adventure as Thundering Engine Woman. Caractacus Mezzasalma appears to be named in Italian and has a complexion common to Italy, so he may be presumed to be Italian as well. Snakkerjape, a monster, seems to have spent a considerable amount of time in Italy and may have come from there originally.
Rome existed in the past, and was significant to Albia's memories and their timeline[1], so we may conjecture that the Roman Empire existed. The Vatican, presumably still in Rome at the time, was sacked by the Anabaptist Alchemical Army in 1566, after which seven recognized popes arose, including the Sicilian Papa de Tutti Papi[2]. Thus the city of Rome certainly still exists in the Girl Genius universe, and is likely still important to (some branch of) Catholicism.
Florence is known as a center of philosophical thought.[3]
- ↑ Lady Astarte at the Queen's Well ✣ "Before Rome! Before Britain!"
- ↑ Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle, page 162
- ↑ "I'll feel bad if your lovely collection of Florentine philosophy is damaged." ✣