It's common knowledge (i.e. in the encyclopedia) that after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent barbarian invasions, the land that was once Roman Italy became a collection of independent political units, many of which would eventually bring about the Renaissance, and also that the nation reunited in the 19th Century.
My question, however, is: During those years when Italy was politically fragmented, did a social, cultural, linguistic, geographical or some other comprehensive concept of Italy remain? If so, what was the scope of that concept?
By scope, I mean, for example, did the Genoese and Milanese think of themselves as Italian even though their dialects are more similar to French than to Tuscan and Romanesco? Did people still consider Sicily part of Italy? Did peasants in Italy think of themselves as Italian or did only the aristocracy, or neither? Outside Italy, did the French, Germans, Spanish, English think of Italy as a single nation that happened to be politically fragmented or just a group of political units with little connection to each other? Did the late Medieval/early Renaissance Italian city-states think of themselves as Italian city-states or just city-states? ETC ETC ETC
TL;DR: Was there still a concept of Italy even when Italy was politically fragmented?
Italy remained a concept from the fall of the Roman Empire up through the Risorgimento. To what extent different parts of what are modern day Italy (plus some parts that are in modern-day Slovenia) considered themselves Italian very likely varied at different times.
For example, Sicily became an Islamic state for a brief period around the 9th century. Various parts near the border with France and Switzerland swapped hands many times. But the Italian language was uniformly spoken throughout the Italian peninsula once Latin fell out of favor, and authors such as Machiavelli and Dante advocated for a unified Italy, so we know that the concept of a unified Italy is quite old.