The town of Fivizzano is in the province of Massa Carrara and it has the privilege to be the first Italian centre where a print shop was built in 1420. It is set in Eastern Lunigiana and has a population of about 10,000 inhabitants. In the immediate surroundings of the chief-town, there is the Medieval castle of the Verrucola.

The first human settlement in the area of Fivizzano probably date to the Roman times, but its documented information dates to the Middle Ages, as it is the case for many other towns in Tuscany. At that time, the village that rose around the castle of the Verrucola was a flourishing commercial centre. In effect, this centre benefits from a very privileged position that allowed it to become one of the busiest markets of the trade traffics linked to the agricultural production.
In the middle centuries of the Middle Ages, Fivizzano belonged to the Malaspina, the family who had dominated the Val di Magra before Castruccio Castracani's siege subjugated it in 1316. In 1404, after the Malaspina had taken control of the town again, Fivizzano was annexed to Florence's dominions. The historic family left the village the duty to strengthen the castle, which was carried out in the XIV century with the building of the walls and of some towers. Nevertheless, the stronghold inexorably decayed in 1481 after an earthquake that compromised its structure and also because of the arrival of the Medici who were more interested into protecting their trade area rather than the castle.
Therefore, the Medici, to whom the town owes most of its current appearance, soon governed Fivizzano. In effect, the town's walls date to 1540, when Cosimo I rose them. The fortification of the castle was due to the need to safeguard commerce after the incursions and pillages perpetrated by Charles VIII in 1494 and by the Spanish in 1537. As a matter of fact, Fivizzano ended its political instability with the raising of its walls. Moreover, the "Accademia degli Imperfetti" was born in the XVI century and it was one of the cradles of Renaissance Humanism in Northern Tuscany.
The palace of Labindo, his tomb and the Baroque fountain standing out in the square are works ordered by Cosimo III around 1683. In the XVIII century, when the Hapsburg Lorraine came to the lead of the Tuscan Grand Duchy, Fivizzano was penalized by the territorial reorganization because it was included in the administration of Pontremoli.
Therefore, Fivizzano had Pontremoli's same fate: it was dominated by Napoleon, experienced the Restoration that caused the Lorraine to get back to power, and, lastly, it entered the Kingdom of Italy thanks to which it recovered its municipal autonomy.