Italy On This Day

Pontiff who regarded himself as a prisoner Pope Pius IX's reign was the longest in history but ended in controversy Pope Pius IX, who di...

Verdi opera that became a symbol of the Risorgimento The bill advertising the first staging of Nabucco at La Scala in Milan The oper...

The heir presumptive whose marriage earned him exile Charles Ferdinand with his wife, the Irishwoman Penelope Smyth Charles Ferdinand...

Cousin of Italy's wartime monarch died in a POW camp As Governor-General, the Duke of Aosta led the East Africa Campaign Prince ...

Austrians thwart Italy’s hopes of unifying the peninsula The Polish painter Juliusz Kossak's depiction of the Austrian 13th regimen...

Entered priesthood after appeal to pope Francesco maintained his faith through difficult times in Italy The blessed Francesco Faà di...

Unification hero spent last days on his island off Sardinia The revolutionary general Giuseppe Garibaldi The Italian revolutionary ...

Garibaldi's Spedizione dei Mille launched from Genoa Giuseppe Garibaldi had the support of King Victor Emmanuel II The Expedit...

Rash ruler who led catastrophic attack on Geneva  A portrait of Charles Emmanuel I by the Dutch Renaissance painter Jan Kraeck Charl...

Christian burial for the King excommunicated by the Pope Victor Emmanuel II: a portrait from 1860  Victor Emmanuel II, the first King...