Italy was a unified country for only 85 years before becoming a republic. The Kingdom of Italy — born from the Risorgimento movement in 1861, expanded into empire in the early 20th century, damaged by two world wars and fascism, and dissolved by referendum in 1946 — left marks on every Italian city that most visitors walk past without knowing what they're looking at. Here's the story, told straight.
Before 1861, the territory now called Italy was divided among eight political entities: the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont, Sardinia, Genoa), the Papal States (central Italy), the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (southern Italy and Sicily), the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia (under Austrian rule), and the Republic of San Marino (still independent today). Each had its own currency, laws, customs barriers, and dialect that was essentially a separate language.
The Risorgimento (literally "rising again") was the political and military movement that unified these territories. Its key figures: Count Cavour of Piedmont (the diplomatic architect), Giuseppe Garibaldi (the military leader of the 1,000-man "Redshirts" who conquered the Two Sicilies in 1860 in one of history's most audacious military campaigns), Giuseppe Mazzini (the ideological founder of Italian republicanism), and King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy (who became the first king of unified Italy).
The proclamation happened on 17 March 1861 in Turin. The territory included most of the peninsula but not yet Rome (still papal, protected by French troops) or Venice (still Austrian). Rome joined in 1870 when French troops withdrew due to the Franco-Prussian War. Venice joined in 1866 after the Third Italian War of Independence.
The unified Kingdom needed to build itself — new state buildings, post offices, courts, schools, barracks, and monuments. The architectural style of the late 19th and early 20th century in Italy is called Umbertino (after King Umberto I, 1878–1900) or Eclectic — heavy neoclassical facades, ornate ironwork, marble public spaces. You know this style even if you don't know its name:
Italy fought in every major European conflict between 1866 and 1945. The Risorgimento wars ended with Venice (1866) and Rome (1870). Colonial expansion brought Eritrea (1882), Somalia (1889–1905), Libya (1911–12, in a brutal war against the Ottoman Empire), and Ethiopia — briefly, after the 1935–36 invasion. The First World War (1915–18) brought the Veneto, Trieste, Istria, and South Tyrol into Italian territory, at a cost of 600,000 dead. The Second World War (1940–45) cost Italy everything — its colonial empire, the trust of its population, and the monarchy itself.
On 2 June 1946 — a date now celebrated as Republic Day — Italian men and women (women voting nationally for the first time) chose between monarchy and republic by referendum. The result: 54.3% for republic, 45.7% for monarchy. King Umberto II — who had been king for only 34 days after his father Victor Emmanuel III's abdication — went into exile in Portugal. He never returned to Italy. The vote divided north from south — northern Italy voted heavily for republic; southern Italy, more conservative, voted for monarchy.
The last Savoy king died in Geneva in 1983. His descendants were prohibited from entering Italy by the 1947 constitution — a clause finally lifted in 2002.
Umberto II went into exile in Cascais, Portugal, where he died in 1983. His descendants continued to live in various European countries — principally Geneva and Switzerland. Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia (Umberto's son, born 1937) was prohibited from entering Italy under Article XII of the 1948 constitution, which barred male descendants of the House of Savoy. This provision was repealed in 2002; he visited Italy that year for the first time since 1944. The Savoy family history is complicated by WWII involvement — Victor Emmanuel III signed the racial laws against Jews in 1938 and kept Mussolini in power through most of the war.
The Vittoriano (officially the Altare della Patria, or Altar of the Fatherland) is the enormous white marble monument on Piazza Venezia in Rome, built 1885–1935. It houses the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Milite Ignoto) from WWI, the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento, and a complex of terraces offering the best views in Rome. Italians have historically mocked it as an eyesore — nicknames include 'la macchina da scrivere' (the typewriter), 'il dentale' (the denture), and 'la torta nuziale' (the wedding cake). The criticism has softened since the terraces became a popular viewpoint, but the monument remains a symbol of heavy-handed national self-promotion at the expense of the medieval urban fabric it replaced.
The Kingdom of Italy had three capitals: Turin (1861–1865, as the Savoy kingdom's traditional seat), Florence (1865–1871, as a compromise while Rome remained papal), and finally Rome (1871–present). Each capital change involved massive disruption — government ministries, courts, and thousands of civil servants physically relocating. Turin has never fully recovered from losing the capital status; Florence benefited enormously from the construction that happened during its six years as capital.
Related reading: Italy History Timeline | Vittoriano Rome Guide | Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Milan | Risorgimento Guide
The relationship between the House of Savoy and Benito Mussolini is one of Italian history's most contested chapters. When Mussolini came to power in October 1922 — formally through King Victor Emmanuel III's appointment as Prime Minister following the March on Rome — the monarchy did not resist fascism. Victor Emmanuel III remained king throughout the fascist period, signed the racial laws against Jews in 1938, and only dismissed Mussolini in July 1943 when it became clear Italy was losing the war.
The constitutional question is significant: Italy in 1922–1943 was still formally a constitutional monarchy, not a dictatorship in the legal sense. Mussolini governed as Prime Minister with the king as nominal head of state. The king could theoretically have dismissed him earlier — as he eventually did in 1943. Why he didn't is the subject of ongoing historical debate: complicity, political calculation, or genuine fear of civil war.
What the Kingdom built under fascism: the EUR district of Rome (planned 1935–1943 for a 1942 World Exhibition that never happened), the Foro Mussolini/Foro Italico sports complex, the Via della Conciliazione approach to St. Peter's (which required demolishing the Borgo Leonino medieval quarter), hundreds of post offices, schools, and train stations in the Rationalist architectural style. These buildings are visible across Italy as the physical legacy of the period.
The geographical extent of the Kingdom of Italy changed significantly across 85 years:
1861: Most of the Italian peninsula except Rome, Venice, and the Papal States' remnant. Population: 22 million.
1866: Venice and the Veneto join after the Third Independence War (Italy fought Prussia's ally against Austria). Population: 25 million.
1870: Rome joins after French troops withdraw. The Papal States reduced to Vatican City (formalized by the 1929 Lateran Pacts with Mussolini).
1878–1885: First colonial acquisitions: Assab (Eritrea coast), then Eritrea, then Somalia in progressive steps.
1912: Libya and the Dodecanese islands (Greek islands including Rhodes) acquired after war with the Ottoman Empire.
1918: Post-WWI gains: Trento, Trieste, Istria, South Tyrol, Zara (Zadar), some Dalmatian islands.
1936: Ethiopia conquered (brief occupation, abandoned 1941). Peak of the Italian colonial empire.
1947: Peace Treaty removes all colonial territories, cedes Istria and Dalmatia to Yugoslavia, South Tyrol retained but under Austrian supervision, returns Dodecanese to Greece.
Rome: The Vittoriano (1885–1935) is the most visible monument. The Via della Conciliazione approach to the Vatican was built 1936–1950, destroying the medieval Borgo quarter that previously hid St. Peter's from view. The Foro Italico sports complex (1928–1936) at the base of Monte Mario has a 17-metre white marble obelisk still inscribed "Mussolini Dux" — it was not removed after WWII, a deliberate preservation decision.
Milan: The Central Station (Stazione Centrale), completed 1931 in monumental late-fascist style — the largest train station in Italy and among the most architecturally extreme examples of the period. The Arengario buildings on Piazza del Duomo (1936–1956), now the Museo del Novecento.
Turin: The birthplace of the Kingdom retains the most coherent 19th-century royal urban fabric — the Via Roma redesign of 1931–1937 replaced Baroque arcaded streets with rationalist arcades. The Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) is open to visitors; the Royal Armoury and Egyptian Museum are in adjacent buildings.
Italy entered WWI on the Allied side in May 1915 after the secret Treaty of London promised territorial gains — specifically Trento, Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia, and colonial territories. The decision was made without a parliamentary vote by Prime Minister Salandra and King Victor Emmanuel III — an act that established a precedent for bypassing parliament that Mussolini would later exploit fully.
The Italian front ran along the Isonzo river (now the Soča in Slovenia) for 29 months, with 11 battles of the Isonzo producing hundreds of thousands of casualties and minimal territorial change. The 12th battle (Caporetto, October–November 1917) was a catastrophic rout — 300,000 prisoners taken, 10,000 dead, 400,000 dispersed. Ernest Hemingway, serving as an ambulance driver, set A Farewell to Arms during the retreat.
What Italy gained by 1918: Trento, Trieste, Istria, South Tyrol (a German-speaking territory that Austria had never agreed to cede), and the token island of Zara (Zadar) in Dalmatia. What Italy had been promised but didn't receive: most of Dalmatia, Fiume (Rijeka), colonial compensation. The term "mutilated victory" (vittoria mutilata) was coined by nationalist writer Gabriele d'Annunzio — it defined Italian domestic politics for the next decade and created the political space for fascism.
The war dead: approximately 650,000 Italian soldiers killed in battle. The 1918 influenza pandemic killed a further 600,000 Italians. The combined death toll exceeded Italy's total population losses in the Risorgimento wars by a factor of 50.
Palazzo Reale, Turin: The Savoy royal palace, used as a royal residence from 1646 to 1865 when the capital moved to Florence. The State Apartments contain 30 furnished rooms of extraordinary baroque and rococo excess — the throne room, the chapel, the armoury (200 suits of armour, 5,000 weapons). Open Tuesday–Sunday, €15. The surrounding buildings include the Palazzo Madama (medieval and baroque), the Museo di Antichità (Roman finds from Piedmont), and the Egyptian Museum (world's second-largest Egyptian collection after Cairo).
Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome: The papal summer residence from 1583, became the royal palace after 1870 when Rome was annexed, and is now the official residence of the President of the Republic. Open to visitors on Sundays and some weekdays; the State Apartments are shown by guided tour, €15. The building itself is the largest inhabited building in Italy (1,200 rooms, 110,500 m²).
Reggia di Caserta, near Naples: The Bourbon royal palace built 1752–1845, one of the largest palaces in the world (1,200 rooms, 47,000 m²). Became a royal residence of the Kingdom of Italy after 1860. The gardens extend 3km with a cascade modeled on Versailles. UNESCO World Heritage Site. Open Wednesday–Monday, €16. The park alone justifies the visit — the cascade seen from below is one of Italy's most dramatic vistas.
Italy's colonial ambitions began within 20 years of unification and ended, disastrously, in 1943. The empire at its peak (1936–1940) included Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, and Ethiopia — a total of 3.7 million km² with 14 million inhabitants.
The first attempt at East African empire ended in complete failure at the Battle of Adwa (1896) — 7,000 Italian soldiers killed by Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II in what remains the largest defeat of a European colonial army by African forces in the 19th century. The shock to Italian national pride was enormous; the Adwa defeat contributed directly to the political instability that eventually produced fascism 30 years later. Ethiopia was the unresolved wound.
The Libya conquest (1911–1912) was brutal — the first use of airplanes in warfare, poison gas used against civilian populations, mass deportations to camps in Italian islands. The population of Libya fell from roughly 1.5 million in 1911 to around 750,000 in 1931 due to warfare, famine, and displacement. Italian fascist propaganda called it "the Fourth Shore" (la Quarta Sponda) — an extension of Italy across the Mediterranean.
The Ethiopian invasion of 1935–1936 used mustard gas against civilian populations and Red Cross hospitals, in explicit violation of the Geneva Conventions. The League of Nations condemned Italy; Britain and France applied limited sanctions but ultimately accepted the conquest. Haile Selassie's speech to the League in Geneva (June 1936) was one of the 20th century's most significant diplomatic moments — watched by the world, ignored by those with power to act.
What remains today: Italian-built infrastructure across Libya (roads, public buildings in Tripoli and Benghazi), Eritrea (the colonial capital Asmara is UNESCO-listed for its extraordinary 1930s Italian modernist architecture), and Ethiopia (roads, administrative buildings in Addis Ababa). The Fiat Tagliero fuel station in Asmara — a 1938 building shaped like an airplane with cantilevered roof spans that engineers said couldn't stand without support columns — is still standing. According to legend, the architect held a gun to the contractor's head and threatened to shoot him if he used support columns during construction.
Our walking tours in Rome, Florence, and Turin follow the Risorgimento story through architecture and monuments.
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