** NEW: Celebrations for Italy's 150th Birthday in 2011 (Free Italy Travel Advice) **

This is an excerpt from the December 2010/January 2011 issue of Dream of Italy:

With all the antiquities and ruins to see throughout Italy, it is easy to forget that the actual country of Italy is quite young. For centuries, the Italian peninsula was comprised of independent city-states, the Papal States and other areas controlled by various European kingdoms. The Italy we know today only dates back to 1861 when the modern Italian state was founded following battles by unifier Giuseppe Garibaldi (pictured - this pivotal figure in Italian history is worth more reading). The movement to unify Italy was called Risorgimento. In 1861, much of northern and southern Italy (with big exceptions including Rome and the Papal States) was united into the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, headed by King Victor Emmanuel and Turin was named the first capital.

Despite the fact that Rome didn't join unified Italy until nine years later, Italy is celebrating its 150th birthday in 2011 with events all over the country. Many events are taking place in and around Turin, the country's first capital, under an initiative called Esperienzia Italia. The offerings in Turin include a season of Verdi at the city's Teatro Regio. The composer was considered “the bard of the Risorgimento.” Piedmont's Venaria Reale will play host to “La Bella Italia” an exhibition of 300 masterpieces revealing “the progress of art from ancient times to the eve of 1861 by means of the pre-Unification capitals: Turin, Florence, Milan, Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Naples and Palermo.” The exhibition will move on to Florence's Pitti Palace in October 2011. For more information on nine months of planned events beginning in March 2011, visit www.italia150.it  (Another good online resources, though in Italian only, is the Web site www.italiaunita150.it )


In Rome, Context Travel has launched a new walking seminar "Garibaldi, Risorgimento, and the Birth of Italy" in honor of Italy's 150th birthday. Another nine long years of battle remained, as Garibaldi, Mazzini and others sought to bring the Papal States ruled Rome into the national fold. Context's three-hour walking seminar discusses the history surrounding 1861, as well as the events leading up to the capture of Rome in 1870 and the subsequent use of this history to further the ideals of later leaders, such a Mussolini.

Beginning near the Campo de' Fiori, guests will learn the foundations of the Risorgimento in Italy and the struggles that Rome faced while remaining under Papal rule. The walk moves on to the Trastevere neighborhood, where many of the battles to liberate Rome took place. Important events, such as the battle in the Ajani wool mill, demonstrate the tenuous nature of the era, as patriots fought against Papal authority for a united Italy.

A walk up Gianiculum Hill provides a perfect vantage point to admire the city, but also home to such historically significant sites as the Mausoleum Ossarium Gianicolense, Porta San Pancrazio and Piazzale Garibaldi. These were locations of seminal battles for the establishment of the Second Roman Republic, and finally the unification of Italy in 1861. Cost is 65 € per person. For more information, call visit www.contexttravel.com