The history of Trecenta can be traced way back to the Romans when - taken from the Etruscans and with the name of Annejanum - it became in 163 B.C. an army outpost at one hundred thirty (centum triginta) Roman miles from Rimini on the Annia route towards the Alps. Its crucial position at the junction of key military and commercial routes made of Trecenta a land of conquest through the ages.

Sundry barbarian tribes invaded Trecenta from year 263 through 774, when the Pope managed to gain a control that would last for almost 1000 years. From 1208 to 1799 Trecenta was ruled directly by the Este, first as part of their Ferrara "signoria" and then under mandate by the Pope. While suffering from their squabbles with neighboring Venice, it was nevertheless under their administration that Trecenta was endowed with good tillable land when in just three years (from 1609 to 1612) Ferrara's ambassador the Marquis Bentivoglio managed to dry out the many swamps that plagued the area.

Foreign invasion resumed with the Austrians in 1701 and climaxed in 1796 with the French invasion led by Napoleon I. All hopes for freedom fostered by the French, however, died miserably when in 1815 the Congress of Vienna transferred the whole Veneto and Lombardy under Austrian control. Thanks also to the heroism of some of its citizens (such as Col. Luigi Bosi), in 1866 Trecenta rejoined the Kingdom of Italy and began to enjoy a short period of prosperity. The floods of 1882, two World Wars and finally the great inundation of 1951, however, brought Trecenta to its knees prompting a flow of emigration to all corners of the world.

Fifty years later - despite its excellent road connections to Verona, Padua and Ferrara - Trecenta remains a quiet little agricultural town of some 2,500 souls, not much different from that where the Italian biking champion Luigi Masetti was born in the 19th century.