United Italy at 150

Yesterday, March 17, was the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of Vittorio Emanuele II (1820-1878) of Sardinia as King of Italy; Sunday, March 20, will be the 150th anniversary of the formal abolition of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and thence the end of the reign of his traditionalist rival King Francesco II (1836-1894), who had been defeated at his last holdout of Gaeta the previous month. "MadMonarchist" reflects on his ambivalence towards the anniversary. I would probably support the Kingdom of Italy if it were still around, but since it isn't, do not see that the 150th anniversary of its unification via anti-clerical republican thugs is anything to celebrate. Italians themselves don't seem particularly enthusiastic either; note that this article in trying to find a positive note says that Italians "still take pride in [their] abundant beauty, art, food and architecture"--all things that have nothing to do with Garibaldi's unified state and existed long before it, when Italy was a beautifully complex patchwork of regional monarchies, small organic republics, and the Papal States.