Amid all the fanfare of Italy’s unification, one piece of the puzzle remained conspicuously absent: Rome. Though the Kingdom of Italy had declared itself whole in 1861, its most ancient and symbolic city—the heart of the Roman Empire, the seat of the Catholic Church—remained under papal rule, protected by French troops and diplomacy. For many
With the crown placed on Victor Emmanuel II and the word “Italy” now written across maps that once bore fractured titles, one might have expected celebration to flow endlessly across the peninsula—but the birth of a kingdom was only the beginning of a deeper, more fragile journey: becoming a nation. The challenges of unification did not end w
It began as a dream whispered in the writings of Mazzini, marched upon by Garibaldi’s redshirts, and declared cautiously by Cavour in the halls of diplomacy, but by 1861, that dream had become a proclamation: Italy was unified, or so it was said. On March 17 of that year, Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy was declared the first King of a u