Maybe for the same reason the names of famous cities (especially if already famous in the past) are translated into foreign languages.
Examples.
Roma is Rome in English and Milano is Milan.
London is Londra in Italian but Manchester is Manchester and Liverpool is Liverpool.
Livorno (a small Italian town where English poets liked to spend their time) is Leghorn.
Aachen (a German city that used to be the residence of Charlemagne) is Acquisgrana in Italian.
Nobody has been translating city names anymore but Londra is going to stay. Aachen is not very famous but probably Acquisgrana is even less so. I should check current history books of schools.
> Maybe for the same reason the names of famous cities (especially if already famous in the past) are translated into foreign languages.
They're not translated as much as they are derived from the same etymons used by the languages spoken there. Italian Acquisgrana or French Aix-la-Chapelle derive from Latin Aquis {capella, grana, villa}. The only properly official name most cities had throughout Europe was in Latin rather than any vernacular, including in areas where non-Romance languages were spoken such as German, English, Polish and so on.
> The city name is from Roman Colonia Florentia, "flowering colony," either literal or figurative, and became Old Italian Fiorenze, modern Italian Firenze.
> The Romans were the founders of Florence. Realizing the importance of a thoroughfare towards the Po plain, Ceasar in 59 B.C. ordered the establishment of a colony on the north bank of the Arno. The foundation is thought to have taken place in the spring, during the Floral Games, or Ludi Florales: hence the name Florentia, which was given to the city. Flora was the goddess of flowers and gardens, and the mother of spring in Roman mythology. Tuscan dialect turned the Latin Florentia into Fiorenza — a name which is to be found on Renaissance frescoes, and which was later shortened to Firenze.
Still lost. I know accents are thick and an ex used to wax poetic about the fluidity of names, especially at the intersection of thick regional accents and illiteracy. But this one is still a bit of a stretch.
Well or Londra? The Romans called it Londinium, so you might expect the modern Italian to be ..(I'm no expert on how Italian has modified endings).. 'Londinia' or 'Londino' or something.
It's Londres in French which seems related, I wonder where they came from though.
The latin name was Mediolanum. Apparently it comes from Celtic Medhelan, in the middle of the plain, and it should be a common name also on the northern side of the Alps (any French person can confirm?). I googled a bit to find when the name switched from Latin to Italian with no success. You could check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Milan but I suggest to give a look at the Italian version of the page with more maps, if you're interested in that sort of things.
I was thinking about the name in Lombard - Milan - which is the same name used in some other European languages. But I don’t know when Italian became the main language in the region.
