At the beginning of the unification process the hope was that Italy could become emancipated on its own, without the aid of foreign powers. It was thought that the South – the region farthest away from the Austrian garrisons of Lombardy-Veneto – was the place from which the push for a united, republican Italy might start. Among other things, Italy’s only real Jacobin revolution had occurred in Naples in 1799. The ideals of the French Revolution had spread from Naples: Antonio Genovesi, Gaetano Filangieri and the abbot Galiani had inspired French revolutionaries from Marat to Danton. Not surprisingly, three Neapolitan Jacobins are considered the first martyrs of the Risorgimento: Vitaliani, Galiani and De Deo.

In addition, I often recall the Calabrian martyrs Michele Bello, Rocco Verduci, Gaetano Ruffo, Domenico Salvadori and Pietro Mazzoni. They ranged in age from twenty-three to twenty-eight years old. They were all educated in Naples, where they had studied law. Verduci’s grandfather was one of the founders of the Neapolitan Republic.

They are five names that are nearly unknown, five young men who died in their early twenties for the dream of creating a united Italy, of unifying it starting from the South. They are the martyrs of Gerace, where they were sentenced to death on 1 October 1847 for having led the revolt which had ignited the area in the early days of September. The sentence was carried out the following day, and as a sign of contempt the bodies of the five patriots were thrown into a mass grave known as ‘la lupa’, the ‘wolf’. The brief trial that resulted in the convictions was perfunctory, already pre-decided, unless one of the men was willing to be an informer and reveal the names of other insurgents. No one informed, however. Just as many others – boys, young men – did not inform, but committed suicide in prison rather than become traitors. Sometimes the police, accompanying the condemned man to the gallows, would even make him pass under the windows of his house in an extreme attempt to make him talk, to make him name his comrades in exchange for his life. Andrea Vochieri, a lawyer from Alessandria, and Amatore Sciesa, a Milanese upholsterer, are just two of the names of those who did not yield; when led past his house, Sciesa told the police ‘Tiremm’ innanz’ (keep going).

It is not realistic to think that splitting up the country is the solution to its current problems. The continuity with those earlier ideals lies instead in thinking that we are better than our political class, that the nation wants to be restructured, that it wants to act, that its talents want to emerge at long last, that we should stop assuming that the best finish last and learn to dream that the best will finish first. That means dreaming with the idealistic aspirations held by the unitaristi. Embracing the idea of being able to construct this Italy means being true heirs of the thinking behind Italian Unity.