House of Visconti
The title of "Conte" is very prolific on the peninsula. In the eleventh century, "Conti" like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. Even apparently "lower"-sounding titles, like Viscount, could describe powerful dynasts, such as the House of Visconti which ruled a major city such as Milan. The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans, was "signore", modeled on the French "seigneur", used with the name of the fief. By the fourteenth century, "conte" and the Imperial title "barone" were virtually synonymous.