Come a Pola, presso del Carnaro ch’Italia chiude e i suoi termini bagna.
Pola is now known as Pula. And it’s now part of Croatia. Formerly, Yugoslavia, and before that, Italy. And before all of that, the empires of the Habsburgs, the Austro-Hungarians, the Byzantines, and the Romans. The Slavs only arrived in the 7th century.
The Italians, from Venizia, owned the place for four hundred and fifty years. That sort of puts a different spin on the idea of national identity in the region.
The history of Kosovo is no less convoluted. Frankly, the entire Balkans share a violent and turbulent past, one that makes our own conflicts here in Canada (vis-a-vis French–English relations) seem rather petulant. There’s no doubt that, as a region, Kosovo (known as old Serbia to the Serbs) forms an important part of their national pysche.
It’s just so damned sad that they lose their soul, but the did it to themselves.