By 500 BC, a number of groups shared Italy. Small Greek colonies dotted the southern coast and island of Sicily. Gauls, ancestors of today's modern French, roamed the mountainous north. While the Etruscans, a group originally hailing from somewhere in western Turkey, settled in central Italy, establishing a number of city-states, including what is now modern-day Bologna. Little is known about the Etruscans except that they thrived for a time, creating a civilization that woul