Man first inhabited the appenine region of Romagna more than 40 thousand years ago.
The extrordinary findings from various archeological digs have taught us much about the region's past. We know, for example, that there was a major settlement in Verucchio from the 9th century
B.C; that in the Umbro-Etruscan period the city of Mevanìola and the pre-roman settlement of Sarsina were founded, and finally that the Romans' domination of the region began with the founding of a colony called Ariminium at the mouth of the Marecchia river in 268 B.C which is now modern day Rimini. Under roman rule the city grew in importance.
Towards the end of the period of roman rule the majority of the region's population began to become concentrated in the major cities (Ravenna, Sarsina, Mevanìola) and the smaller towns began to decline. The invasion of the barbarians (535-568) caused a noticeable decrease in the population, the men tending to take refuge in the towns of the high appenines; and it was in this period that the first parish churches were founded. In the central parts of the region we see the beginnings of a feudal system.
      The first monasteries were founded in the high appenine region at the turn of the first millennium,
putting their indelible mark on the area.
Both pilgrims from the Po valley headed for Rome, and the economic development of the 12th and 13th centuries which resulted in an increase in the number of traders travelling in the area, helped to create in the region a route along which were founded refuges and new settlements.
From the 12th to the 14th century there were violent feudal wars between local landowners, such as those between the Guidi family who owned land in the mountains, and the Malatesta family living in the hills between Cesena and Rimini. (The church would also weild its power in these wars from time to time).
      The power of the church was soon countered by that of Romagna Toscana due to the political intervention of the Florentine Republic. In fact from the second half of the 14th century until the first decade of the 15th century the people of Florence or " Fiorentini" by means of vicarship and jurisdictions of podestas enjoyed great power in northern Romagna. While the church maintained its feudal priviledges giving castles and fortresses and their accompanying land to friends of the church, Florence governed with the power and attraction of a city dominated by great art, architecture and thought. New buildings, bridges, houses and roads were built in Romagna Toscana.
The two great powers of the church and the state of Romagna Toscana created borders which lasted until the unification of Italy. Only in 1923, with the intervention of Benito Mussolini, did an area of Romagna Toscana became a part of the province of Forlì.