In a lecture given to the British Academy in 1919 G. M. Trevelyan spoke of the ‘passionate and many-sided devotion’ of the English ‘to the literature, language, art, history and civilization of ancient, of mediaeval and of modern Italy; the English had always displayed a particular love for Italy’. It is undoubtedly true that English scholars have made a distinguished contribution to the study of all periods of Italian history. As Trevelyan remarked, Gibbon is a noteworthy example: Decline and fall grew out of a plan to write a history of the city of Rome itself. Following his instinct as a classicist, he saw Italy as representative of the western aspect of Mediterranean civilization, and lamented that the government and army of Rome had fallen into the hands of non-Romans and non-Italians. The effects of Gibbon's grand tour of the peninsula, and especially his visit to Rome, are well-known, and Italy figures prominently throughout Decline and fall. Since his treatment of the peninsula in the fifth century and beyond was undoubtedly influential, it is worthwhile to examine the strengths and weaknesses of his approach and the respects in which his interpretations have been confirmed or disproved by more recent research. In particular, does his view of a steady weakening of the Roman element in Italy require modification? To what extent did Gibbon's antipathy to the undoubtedly increased role of Christianity distort his view of key developments?