They should eliminate Milan on SSS and perhaps portugal (i don't have anything against portugal but they weren't a powerfull nation untill the expansion era, wich is a few turns on the game).
I think that CA split good old "Italy" on Milan and Venice for historical rasons,and it worked 100% better with the unhistorical Italy as a faction that with this 2 ones : that show us that gameplay sometimes kicks history ass (and i love history so it is hard for me to say this).
Also this sucks becouse if they were to add 2 cities as factions, then they should have added alot of other MORE IMPORTANT factions, like kievan rus (wich is on SSS i know) Aragon (wich is also on SSS, thoug they should have replaced it with portugal, for medieval reasons) Burgundy , Switzerland, Bulgaria, Sweden, Ireland, Bohemia , and some north african muslim states, because the game REALLY needs more muslim and orthodox factions! (thoug im not asking 1000 factions like on Knights of Honor, that would be impossible on TW engine)
And if they were to add this many factions , they should also buff the important ones (hre, byz, turks) so that no stupid city named Milan takes over the powerfull kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire!!!!!