The Etruscans were established in Tuscany at the beginning of the 1st millennium. It was the first population to have political, civil and economic structures and organization. Its cultural influence is still visible. No other region in Europe can claim such long-lasting cities such as Chiusi, Volterra, Cortona, Arezzo, Fiesole, Artimino and Comeana. The Romans, in the 3rd century B.C., started to develop public facilities and roads for communication connecting Rome to northern Italy, going through the Tuscan region. In fact one of the roads through Tuscany to remembered as the “road of the pilgrims” called Romea or Francigena, which passes by beautiful monasteries and abbeys along the way. In the feudal period, single cities (such as Pisa, Siena, Florence, Pistoia, Prato and Arezzo) started to develop, and Florence became the biggest cultural and economic centre of all (it is in Florence that the Italian language was born and where the golden Florins were coined). With the Renaissance, Tuscany became the largest centre of ideas and inventions. Lorenzo de’ Medici surrounded himself with the most brilliant minds of that time. Other moments of cultural development included the Literary Academies, for example the Crusca, and the Universities (Galileo Galilei made his mark in Pisa). All these innovations were thanks to the granduke Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena (1765–1790) and to Giampiero Vieusseux (1812). After the unification of Italy (1859), Florence became the capital of the new born state for some years (1865). After the two World Wars, in 1946, Tuscany favoured the Italian Republic, thanks to the partisans, and from then on gave its country many significant political and cultural components. Tuscany today offers to the masses of tourists testimonies of its masterpieces and remains open to various peoples and cultures.