Ford set 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore in Parma, Italy for one main reason. Given that Ford was trying to show watchers of the play something which they had not seen before and were unfamiliar with, he needed to set the play in a place which would support the action of the play. The play simply needed a setting which one could see the events happening in, not a place where the action would be out of place or seen as taboo.

Therefore, given that Italy was a place historically recognized as a place where vengeance and lust and greed were readily apparent and accepted, Ford saw that the location in Italy was perfect.