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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*.

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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.

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Modified regions (nell'Italia del Sud)

adjective

adjective/adverb

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

Subject pronouns and the verb to be (io sono)

Singular definite articles (il, la)

Singular demonstratives (questo, questa)

Basic verbal negation (non)

Yes/No questions

Coordinating conjunctions (e, ma, o)

Regular plurals and definite articles (-i, -e, i, le)

Plural verb to be (noi siamo, voi siete)

Plural demonstratives (questi, queste)

Nouns ending in -e

Special singular articles (lo, l')

The plural article (gli)

Special indefinite articles (uno, un')

Demonstrative adjectives (quello, quella)

Adjective endings (-o, -a, -i, -e)

Expressing quantity (molto, poco, tanto)

The verb to have (ho, hai, ha...)

There is / there are (c'è, ci sono)

The preposition of (di)

Singular possessives (il mio, la mia)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, due, tre...)

Numbers 11 to 20 (undici, dodici...)

Numbers 21 to 100 (trenta, quaranta...)

Idiomatic avere (avere fame, avere anni)

Plural possessive adjectives (i miei, le mie)

Possessives with family members (mio padre)

Formal address (dare del Lei)

Present tense of -are verbs (-o, -i, -a)

Question words (chi, cosa, dove)

Present tense of -ere verbs (-o, -i, -e)

Question words (quando, come, perché)

Question word agreement (quanto, quanta, quanti, quante)

Regular -ire verbs

Verbs with -isc- (capisco, capisci, capisce)

Pronouns after prepositions (me, te, lui)

The verb fare (faccio, fai, fa)

The verb andare (vado, vai, va)

The verb stare (sto, stai, sta)

The verb venire (vengo, vieni, viene)

The verb uscire (esco, esci, esce)

Location and destination (a, in)

Origin and movement (da)

Articulated prepositions with a (al, alla)

Articulated prepositions with in (nel, nella)

Articulated prepositions with di and da (del, dal)

Simple prepositions (con, per, su, tra)

Articulated prepositions with su (sul, sulla)

Months of the year

Telling time (sono le...)

Dates (il + number)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primo, secondo, terzo...)

The verb to want (volere)

The verb can (potere)

The verb must (dovere)

The verb to know (sapere)

Reflexive verbs (mi lavo, ti lavi)

Indirect object pronouns (gli, le, ci...)

Expressing preferences (mi piace)

Plural preferences (mi piacciono)

Comparatives (più... di, meno... di)

The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)

Irregular past participles (fatto, letto, preso)

The passato prossimo with essere (sono andato)

Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)

Time adverbs with the past tense (già, mai, ancora)

Third-person direct object pronouns (lo, la, li, le)

First and second-person direct object pronouns (mi, ti, ci, vi)

The four seasons

Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)

Conversational words (beh, allora, davvero)

Indefinite adjectives for some (qualche, alcuni)

Indefinite adjectives for every and all (ogni, tutti)

Indefinite pronouns (qualcosa, qualcuno)

Noun suffixes (-ino, -one)

Adverbs of manner (-mente)

Comparisons of equality (così... come)

The relative superlative (il più)

The absolute superlative (-issimo)

Irregular comparatives (migliore, peggiore)

Present progressive (stare + -ando, -endo)

Imminent actions (stare per)

The locative pronoun (ci)

The partitive pronoun (ne)

Pronoun placement with modal verbs

Impersonal subjects (si)

Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)

Past participle agreement with pronouns

Question	Answer
Sicily	la Sicilia
southern	meridionale
We traveled in southern Sicily.	Abbiamo viaggiato nella Sicilia meridionale.
route	il percorso
Campania	la Campania
picturesque	pittoresco
These routes in ancient Campania are picturesque.	Questi percorsi nella Campania antica sono pittoreschi.
ruin	il rudere
Roman	romano
Apulia	la Puglia
Marco said that the Roman ruins were in southern Apulia.	Marco ha detto che i ruderi romani erano nella Puglia meridionale.
We stayed in ancient Campania until Saturday.	Siamo rimasti nella Campania antica fino a sabato.
Greek	greco
We visited these Greek temples in southern Apulia.	Abbiamo visitato questi templi greci nella Puglia meridionale.
The professor said that these Greek ruins were Roman.	Il professore ha detto che questi ruderi greci erano romani.
archaeology	l'archeologia
Archaeology in ancient Sicily is truly fascinating.	L'archeologia nella Sicilia antica è veramente affascinante.
We followed this picturesque route up to Roman Campania.	Abbiamo seguito questo percorso pittoresco fino alla Campania romana.
These picturesque ruins are located in Greek Sicily.	Questi ruderi pittoreschi si trovano nella Sicilia greca.
She said that the route in southern Apulia was dangerous.	Lei ha detto che il percorso nella Puglia meridionale era pericoloso.
The teacher explains archaeology in ancient Sicily.	L'insegnante spiega l'archeologia nella Sicilia antica.