According to legend, Piceni, while guided by a woodpecker, migrated from Sabina (the area near today’s city of Rieti), occupying the central areas of Italy that overlooked the Adriatic Sea.   The remains of their civilisation, scattered over Marche and northern Abruzzo, narrate about a people of brave warriors that was divided into a myriad of villages, each one proud of its own independence and its own traditions.   The elaborate bronze and iron jewellery, often embellished with amber decorations from the distant Baltic Sea, testify to the sophistication of the elite that was regularly in contact with other Italic peoples, with continental Europe, and the eastern Mediterranean.