The answer is central Italy. The heartland of the Etruscans was the zone between the Arno and Tiber rivers of central Italy that still bears their name - Tuscany. The beginning of the Etruscan people is not definite at all. Their linguistic, although transcribed in a Greek-derived script and existing in writings that are still in big part ambiguous, is unrelated to the Indo-European linguistic family. It is probable they were the result of a continuing fusion of native and immigrant populations. The mixing of peoples happened between the end of the Bronze Age and the so-called Villanovan era.