When planning a historical road trip through Italy, you will often want to talk about specific areas or historical eras of a region—like "southern Sicily" or "ancient Campania." Doing so requires a slight tweak to how you use prepositions.
Modifying Regions, Countries, and Continents
Normally, when you are in (or traveling to) a country, continent, or region, you use the simple preposition in without a definite article. For example, you would simply say in Sicilia or in Campania.
However, if the region, country, or continent is modified by an adjective or a specification, you must use the definite article.
Because you are now combining the preposition in with a definite article (like la for feminine regions), you must form an articulated preposition, such as nella (in + la).
For instance, if you add an adjective like meridionale (southern) or antico (ancient) to the region, in becomes nella.
| We traveled in southern Sicily. | Abbiamo viaggiato nella Sicilia meridionale. |
| These routes in ancient Campania are picturesque. | Questi percorsi nella Campania antica sono pittoreschi. |
This rule applies regardless of whether the adjective describes geography or a historical era. As soon as you add an extra descriptive word like greco (Greek) or romano (Roman), the definite article is required.
| Archaeology in ancient Sicily is truly fascinating. | L'archeologia nella Sicilia antica è veramente affascinante. |
| Marco said that the Roman ruins were in southern Apulia. | Marco ha detto che i ruderi romani erano nella Puglia meridionale. |
| These picturesque ruins are located in Greek Sicily. | Questi ruderi pittoreschi si trovano nella Sicilia greca. |