It's the po-po, the 5-0, the popolo!

Why Italy?
Cities located in northern Italy such as Milan, Florence, and Venice had become very prosperous around the end of the Middle Ages.
These cities were located between western Europe and the eastern seaside of the Mediterranean.
Northern Italy was able to lead the Italian Renaissance due to the Mediterranean, the central location for trade.
They controlled trade with Asia mostly through the silk road. From Asia, northern Italian cities imported spices, dyes, and silks which were not enough or new in Europe.
Thus they were sold expensively, and northern Italian cities became rich. 
Economic Factors that promoted growth
the reduced population was much wealthier, better fed, and, significantly, had more surplus money to spend on luxury goods like art and architecture. As incidences of the plague began to decline in the early fifteenth century, Europe's devastated population once again began to grow. This new demand for products and services, and the reduced number of people able to provide them, put the lower classes in a more favorable position. Furthermore, this demand also helped create a growing class of bankers, merchants, and skilled artisans. The horrors of the Black Death and the seeming inability of the Church to provide relief would contribute to a decline of church influence
Venice
Venice supported by a large merchant fleet and powerful navy became rich on trade.
Venice also profited from the sacking of Constantinople at the end of the fourth crusade
Genoa and Milan
Two additional Italian port cities Genoa and Milan also benefited from trade because their geographical position as the natural crossroads for trade between the middle east and northern Europe
Examples of trade
Italian merchants purchased English Wool directly from the point of manufacture in England and transported the wool to North Africa
Italian merchants purchased spices and silk in the Middle East and transported it to the ports of Genoa, Milan, and Marseilles for resale in Northern Europe

The profits from this trade made Venice and to a lesser degree Genoa and Milan fabulously wealthy
The profits were continually reinvested to earn even more profit
Florence
Two Industries turn Florence into a Major power despite the fact it was an inland city
Wool

Banking – Florence became the bank for the Popes and dominated banking throughout Europe
The money from this business made Florence the financial capital of Italy
Florence
In the mid- 14th century Florence faced two economic problems
Edward III of England refused to repay a large debt forcing some bankers into bankruptcy
the collapse of the Bardi and Peruizzi banks would open the way for the Medici to rise to prominence in Florence
The Black death killed half of the population and Florence face labor unrest.
The poor property less workers revolted (1378)
The labor unrest caused a shake up in the political establishment but the Florentine economic structure survived the trouble and remained stable
Changes in the world of Art
It was during this period of instability that the first Renaissance figures, such as Dante and Petrarch lived, and the first stirrings of Renaissance art were to be seen in the opening half of the fourteenth century, notably in the realism of Giotto. Paradoxically, some of these disasters would help establish the Renaissance.
Communes
Northern Italy
Genoa, Milan, Florence, Pisa
Sworn associations of free men seeking complete political and economic independence from the nobility
Guilds
They won their independence
They built new city walls, regulated trade, collected taxes and kept the peace
The nobility seeks to reestablish itself in the communal cities
They sought to marry into the commercial families and in the process created a new social class
The new social class protected its power by limiting citizenship to those who owned property, residence in the city, and the right social connections

The Popolo
The disenfranchised and heavily taxed people who were denied the right of citizenship in the Communes
They wanted to be included in the government and equality in taxation
They used armed force and violence to take control
They established representative governments (people exercise power through elected representatives)
There victory was only temporary
They soon acted and governed in the same way as those they had overturned and never really won the support of the poor or the unskilled laborer
They were never able to restore civil order and law to the cities
Competition for Power
Northern Italy was divided into a number of warring city-states, the most powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Ferrara, and Venice.
Northern Italy was further divided by the long running battle for supremacy between the forces of the Papacy and of the Holy Roman Empire: each city aligned itself with one faction or the other,
Constant Warfare
Warfare between the states was common
The first part of the Renaissance saw almost constant warfare on land and sea as the city-states vied for preeminence.
A system of Alliances is developed to create a balance of power
An important result is the development of modern diplomatic elations which included the use of ambassadors to make commercial contracts, and provide a direct contact between governments
Who won
By the end of the 1400’s Venice, Florence, Milan, Naples, and the Papacy possessed the greatest wealth and power
However this success had come at a high price for the Italians city states could not see a way to cooperate or unite in order to defeat foreign forces and Italy was invaded by the Austrians and French
Italy would be an occupied land until the late 19th century and never become a powerful colonial nation-state like France, Spain, or England
Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498. He was known for his book burning, destruction of what he considered immoral art, and hostility to the Renaissance. He vehemently preached against what he saw as the moral corruption of the clergy, and his main opponent was Pope Alexander VI
What Savonarola Said
Savonarola returned to Florence in 1490. There he began to preach passionately about the Last Days, accompanied by visions and prophetic announcements of direct communications with God and the saints
The first disaster to give credibility to Savonarola’s apocalyptic message was the Medici family's weakening grip on power owing to the French-Italian Wars
The second disaster was the appearance of syphilis (or the “French pox”), possibly brought back by sailors from the New World, which was a running epidemic and as deadly as the plague
Finally, the year 1500 was approaching, which brought about a mood of millennialism. In minds of many, the Last Days were impending and Savonarola was the prophet of the day.
Who he attacked
he preached that Christian life involved being good, practicing the virtues, rather than carrying out displays of excessive pomp and ceremonies.
He did not seek to make war on the Church at Rome. Rather, he wanted to correct the transgressions of worldly popes and secularized members of the Papal Court.
Lorenzo Medici and his son Piero also became targets of Savonarola’s preaching
What he did
In 1497, he and his followers carried out the Bonfire of the Vanities. They sent boys from door to door collecting items associated with moral laxity: mirrors, cosmetics, lewd pictures, pagan books, immoral sculptures (which he wanted to be transformed into statues of the saints and modest depictions of biblical scenes), gaming tables, chess pieces, lutes and other musical instruments, fine dresses, women’s hats, and the works of immoral and ancient poets, and burnt them all in a large pile
What happened to him
On May 13, 1497, the rigorous Father Savonarola was excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI, and in 1498, Alexander demanded his arrest and execution.
He was charged with heresy, uttering prophecies,sedition, and even other crimes, called religious errors by the pope.
tortured on the rack. He signed a confession
degraded as “heretic and schismatic", and given over to the secular authorities to be burned. He was hanged in chains from a single cross; an enormous fire was lit beneath him; he was thereby executed in the same place where the "Bonfire of the Vanities" had been lit,