We will be traveling to Italy in a week, visiting these 4 states. From my modest understanding, Toscana has the most Etruscan elements. Piemonte and Lombardy will have overtones of Austria-Hungary.
Is there a resource about regional differences of Italian states?
If you like or love the violin, please visit the city of Cremona (Lombardy region) known for it's famous violins.
My friend's friend makes violins. On my first visit, she brought me to his own shop. The day we visited, he was shaping a new violin.
He also was preparing to secure and pack up two other ones he custom made for other clients.
A most fascinating afternoon spent watching him at his craft.
Below is a link to an overall interesting history.
https://www.amorimfineviolins.com/a-brief-history-of-violin-making-in-cremona-amorim-fine-violins/
A sweet and quaint city.
P.S.
An excerpt from web on Lombardy:
"In 1815 Lombardy was restored to Austria as part of a newly created Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. In 1859 a Franco-Piedmontese army expelled the Austrians from Lombardy, which joined newly unified Italy." - https://www.britannica.com/place/Lombardy
Well, I have a favorite resource but not sure it will help much…the book we used in the third and fourth years of my Italian classes was a really interesting exploration of each region. 20 regions, 20 chapters, 20 months of classes. “Here and There Through Italy” Another book I enjoyed that talks about stereotypes and differences was The Italians, by John Hooper, but it wasn’t specifically about regional differences.
I did a web search, as I suspect you did, and only found very superficial click-bait articles. Good question, though. I think I’ll dig a little deeper and see if I can find anything.
The relatively few things left by Etruscans are in the south of Tuscany.
The Austrian element is strong only in German-speaking South Tyrol and Trentino. Austrians ruled Veneto, Lombardia and even Tuscany (for about one century the Grandduke of Tuscany was a member of the Habsburg family) for enough time to leave a few memorabilia, but not enough to leave a deep imprint.
Piemonte was never related to Austria, a little more to France.
One more well-regarded book that includes a bit more regional information: The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples. Not sure you have time pre-departure for a big book, but maybe you’d find it interesting later
regional cultural identities started to form during middle ages / renaissance.
etruscan period is too far in time, the Austrian-hungarian period is too close to leave relevant cultural influences in local traditions and customs, except for some linguistic aspects (in Venetian dialect, money is called "schei" from the German "scheidemunze" which indicates coins of low value or "spritz" that comes from the verb "spritzen" which means "to splash" since Austrians didn't like local wines very much so they used to dilute them with a splash of water).
We can say that the proximity of some culturally influent countries such as France in case of piedmont has had some effects in the cultural background but I've to say that each region is unique with its own peculiarities.
