Which city is Assassin’s Creed II’s opening location?

Assassin’s Creed II opens in Florence, Italy.

The game introduces Ezio Auditore in Florence in 1476, where he begins as a teenager from a prominent merchant family. The city’s Renaissance setting provides the backdrop for the opening missions, family story, early investigations, and the first major steps in Ezio’s transformation into an Assassin.

Florence is not the only Italian city in Assassin’s Creed II. The player later visits places including Monteriggioni, San Gimignano, Forlì, Venice, and the Tuscan countryside. Venice becomes especially important in the middle portion of the game, which is why it is sometimes incorrectly remembered as the opening city.

The Florence sections draw on real landmarks and historical figures associated with the Renaissance. The game presents a dramatized version of history, combining actual locations and people with fictional characters, secret societies, and the wider science-fiction mythology of the Assassin’s Creed universe.