Because Italian cities invented "downtown density" - since Roman times, everyone wanted to live as close to the center of the urbe as possible, driving up real

Because Italian cities invented "downtown density" - since Roman times, everyone wanted to live as close to the center of the urbe as possible, driving up real estate prices to the point where "statement" buildings had to be optimized for height. This is particularly true for Bononia where, at the height of its power in the 12th/13th/14th century, families competed to have the highest tower in a town that had literally dozens of them.