Happy TravellerWelcome to Piombino, a picturesque town located in the province of Livorno in Tuscany, Italy. With a population of roughly 35,000, Piombino is located on the border between the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, and is in front of Elba Island at the northern side of Maremma. The town has an ancient historical centre, which can be traced back to the time of the Etruscans port, in the surroundings of Populonia. During the Middle Ages, Piombino was an important port of the Republic of Pisa. Today, the town’s port is still heavily used for both industry and tourism, with ferry-boats to Portoferraio (Elba) and Olbia (Sardinia).
Geographically, Piombino is bordered by the communes of Campiglia Marittima, Follonica, San Vincenzo, and Suvereto. The town has seven civil parishes: Baratti, Colmata, Fiorentina, La Sdriscia, Populonia, Populonia Stazione, and Riotorto.
Piombino has a rich history that goes back to ancient times. During the Etruscan era, the main city in the area was Populonia, which is now a frazione within the comune of Piombino. The name Piombino derives almost certainly from Populino, meaning Small Populonia, which the refugees gave to a small village where they had taken refuge after the city had been attacked by Greek pirates in the 9th century. It is also probable that Piombino had already been founded during the period of Ostrogoth rule. In 1115, Piombino submitted to the Republic of Pisa, becoming its second main port. During the conflicts between the Pisane and the Genoese in the 12th and 13th centuries, the city was sacked various times. In 1248, the Capitano Ugolino Arsopachi built the Channels.
The Castle of Piombino remained a Pisan possession until Gerardo Appiani, after ceding Pisa to the Milanese Visconti, carved out an independent lordship centred on Piombino that included the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago: Elba, Pianosa, Montecristo, Capraia, Gorgona, and Giglio, for his family, who held the state intermittently until 1634. In 1445, through his marriage with Caterina Appiani, Rinaldo Orsini acquired the Lordship of Piombino. In 1501–1503, the lordship came under the control of Cesare Borgia. After Cosimo I de Medici had occupied the Lordship of Piombino in the course of the war against Siena, in 1553 and 1555 a French-Ottoman fleet attacked Piombino, but was pushed back. In 1557, a peace treaty reinstated the Appiani as rulers of Piombino, with the exception of Portoferraio, which was given to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the area of Orbetello, which became part of the State of the Presidi under Spanish control. In 1594, the Lordship of Piombino was raised to the status of a principality by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II of Habsburg, the first Prince of Piombino being Alessandro Appiani d’Aragona. In 1634, the title was acquired by the Ludovisi family, whose member Niccolò I had married the heiress Polissena Appiani in 1632. In 1708, the principality became ruled by the Boncompagni family with Antonio I as prince. In 1801, Napoleon abolished the principality, Piombino and its lands being annexed by the Kingdom of Etruria; in 1809, they were given to Napoleon’s sister, Elisa Baciocchi. After the Napoleons final defeat and the Congress of Vienna, the state of Piombino was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It became part of the unified Kingdom of Italy in 1860.
During World War II, in the days that followed the announcement of the Armistice of Cassibile, Piombino was the setting for one of the first episodes of the Italian resistance. On 10 September 1943, during Operation Achse, a small German flotilla, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Karl-Wolf Albrand, tried to enter the harbour of Piombino but was denied access by the port authorities. General Cesare Maria De Vecchi, in command of the Italian coastal forces and a former Fascist Gerarca, commanded the port authorities to allow the German flotilla to enter, against the advice of Commander Amedeo Capuano, the Naval commander of the harbour. Once they entered and landed, the German forces showed a hostile behaviour, and it became clear that their intent was to occupy the town. The local population asked for a resolved reaction by the Italian forces, threatening an insurrection, but the senior Italian commander, general Fortunato Perni, instead ordered his tanks to open fire on the civilians, to disperse the crowds; De Vecchi forbade any action against the Germans. This, however, did not stop the protests. Some junior officers, acting on their own initiative and against the orders, assumed command and started distributing weapons to the population, and civilian volunteers joined the Italian sailors and soldiers in the defense. Battle broke out at 21:15 on 10 September, between the German landing forces and the Italian coastal batteries, tanks, and civilian population. Italian tanks sank the German torpedo boat TA11; Italian artillery also sank seven Marinefährprahme, the péniches Mainz and Meise (another péniche, Karin, was scuttled at the harbour entrance as a blockship) and six Luftwaffe service boats (Fl.B.429, Fl.B.538, Fl.C.3046, Fl.C.3099, Fl.C.504 e Fl.C.528), and heavily damaged the torpedo boat TA 9 and the steamers Carbet and Capitano Sauro. Sauro and Carbet were scuttled because of the damage they had suffered. The German attack was repelled; by the dawn of 11 September, 120 Germans had been killed and about 200-300 captured, 120 of them wounded. Italian casualties had been four killed (two sailors, one Guardia di Finanza brigadier, and one civilian) and a dozen wounded; four Italian submarine chasers (VAS 208, 214, 219, and 220) were also sunk during the fighting. Later in the morning, however, De Vecchi ordered the prisoners to be released and had their weapons given back to them. New popular protests broke out, as the Italian units were disbanded and the senior commanders fled from the city. The divisional command surrendered Piombino to the Germans on 12 September, and the city was occupied. Many of the sailors, soldiers, and citizens who had fought in the battle of Piombino retreated to the surrounding woods and formed the first partisan formations in the area. For the deeds of its citizens, the town received a Gold Medal for Military Valour from President Carlo Azeglio
