As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians.
I understand finding accurate 'Coat of Arms' information is hard due to certain types of sites out there... However I believe this to be the one for Messina:
I was hoping to find one for a smaller town, Longi, in Messina.
Do smaller towns actually have Coat of Arms? Was there one for Sicily or anything that might be more fitting?
It's said Italy was a country of Saints, poets and navigators. There's no more trace of the poets and navigators but, fortunately, there are traces of the Saints. All the Italian towns are voted to a Saint and one of these is San Gennaro, well-known for his miracle. Who was San Gennaro? San Gennaro ...