Why go
Garibaldi’s southern campaign, Cavour’s statecraft, the acquisition of Venetia and the capture of Rome reveal that unification was a process. Following those stages gives 19th-century memorials a clearer context. Turin’s connection to the Sardinian kingdom and Rome’s later role as capital make those changes especially visible.
The full story
The drive for unification gathered force in the mid-19th century. In 1860–61, Giuseppe Garibaldi led campaigns in Sicily and Naples, while the Sardinian government under Count Cavour helped bring the territories together. The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in March 1861 under Victor Emmanuel II. The new state still did not include all the lands later associated with it. Venetia was added after the 1866 war with Austria. Rome remained under papal rule until 1870, when French troops withdrew during the Franco-Prussian War and Italian forces took the city. Rome became the capital the following year. Unification did not erase regional differences, particularly the uneven economic development between north and south. The kingdom later entered the First World War on the Allied side in 1915. Fighting along the Alpine front brought heavy losses, and the postwar settlement left nationalists arguing over territories they had expected to gain. When reading a unification monument, check its date: a memorial to 1861, 1866 or 1870 points to a different stage of the same story.