Hello- I've got a simple question. (Sorry if it's been asked before.)

What did Italians- or, rather, the people living in Italy at the time- consider themselves, between the fall of Rome and the unification of Italy? It's a wide timespan that I don't know much about.

Did people consider themselves as, i.e., Genoese/Neapolitan/Venetian, or did they think of themselves as Italians; or was there some other identity?

In other words, what was the ethnicity at the time?

Thanks in advance for the help!