Italian Unification

Vicenza's main piazza today. This picture was taken by my friend Maximilien Pierre Francesco Zanardi  from his house. 

Today, March 17, 2011 is a very important day in Italy. So important that we actually got the day off from school (which typically only happens for religious holidays). Today is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Back before 1861, Italy was divided into many different kingdoms, duchies, and other administrative regions. For example, the Papal States included Bologna and Rome, while The Grand Duchy of Tuscany held Florence, Pisa, and Livorno. In the south, there was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with the southern half of the mainland peninsula as well as the island of Sicily, while in the north there were many regional kingdoms.

Before this unification in 1861, few Italians actually knew what "Italy" was. As far as scholars of that time were concerned, "Italy" was just a peninsula that happened to contain many different kingdoms in it, sort of the way "Iberia" is the peninsula that holds Spain and Portugal. Exactly 150 years ago, the first single country with the name "Italy" appeared under a single throne, that of Victor Emmanuel II from the northwest region of Piedmont. The idea for a unified Italy was spearheaded by radicals such as Giuseppe Garibaldi as well as the more conservative Victor Emmanuel II and his fellow Piedmont dweller, Count Cavour, who is generally regarded as the architect of the Risorgimento, or Italian Unification. The main thought behind this unification process was uniting a group of people with a similar culture, language, religion, and tradition under a single throne.

Many of the problems faced in that time had to do with the majority of the Italian population identifying with their previous nationality. People would not proclaim "I am Italian", yet they would proudly say "I am Veneto" or "I am Sicilian". Nowadays, this sort of nationalism for one's region continues. If I were to ask someone on the street to label themselves, they would say "Sono vicentino" or "Sono napolitano" or "Sono fiorentino", identifying with their province. In America, for the most part, people would say "I am American". If you ask me, this is mainly because of how different the various provinces of Italy truly are. Each has its own dialect (with some such as Neapolitan or Friulian being full-on languages of their own), its own cuisine, its own festivals, and its own way of life. It is not like in America where somebody from Oregon and someone from Delaware have essentially the same culture. Here, if you go a hundred kilometers in any direction, you've found a completely new set of people.

Even in politics you can see the lack of national unity here in Italy. One of the leading political parties, La Lega Nord (the Northern League) has an agenda of seperating the economically strong northern regions of Italy from the southern regions. Although this is not unheard of in American politics, there is no way such a group would gain any power.

So even though this is the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, there still seems to be a sense that the unity of Italians is missing.