La Piana was born in
Piana degli Albanesi () near
Palermo in
Sicily. He is the author of a number of studies in Albanian
philology, including
Il catechismo albanese di Luca Matranga, 1592, da un manoscritto Vaticano (The Albanian Catechism of Lekë Matrënga, 1592, from a Vatican Manuscript),
Grottaferrata 1912,
Prolegomeni allo studio della linguistica albanese (Introduction to the Study of Albanian Linguistics), Palermo 1939, and
Studi linguistici albanesi: i dialetti siculo-albanesi (Albanian Linguistic Studies: The Albanian Dialects of Sicily), Palermo 1949. ==See also==