The most United in Italy
These are the establishments which, during the Risorgimento, witnessed episodes that led to the Unification of Italy. Brought to light by research for the 2011 edition of the Guida Locali storici d'Italia, which paid tribute to the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy, these stories have become part of the Association’s historical legacy.
1862 - Bruxaboschi haunt of Risorgimento heroes
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The villagers of San Desiderio, now part of Genoa, were roused by the ideas that the Ruffini brothers and Mazzini formulated in the area between 1830 and 1833, and played a heroic part in the Risorgimento campaigns. They were certainly very much at home in the Trattoria detta del Bruxaboschi.
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1867 - Above the Lavena, Garibaldi calls for Rome as capital
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A bronze plaque recalls that, acclaimed by the crowd in St Mark’s Square, on 26 February 1867, Garibaldi stood on the first floor of the Procuratie Vecchie above the Caffè Lavena and, greeting Venice, free at last, expressed his wish that Rome would become the capital of Italy.
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1865 - Portraits of patriots at Caffè Dante
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Medallions with the great personalities of the Risorgimento can still be seen in the rooms of the Caffè Dante in Verona, a bastion of all things Italian in the fight against Austria.
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1865 – The Cavour, MP hotel in Florence
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In 1865, when it became the hotel for MPs in Florence, which was then the capital of Italy, the Hotel Cavour very diplomatically took the name of Italy’s first prime minister, Camillo Benso, Count Cavour.
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1860 - Stratta sweets delight Cavour
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2547 lire and 60 cents for 29 kg of marrons glacés, 18 of sorbet, 37 of candied fruit, pastries, preserves, and meringues: this was the memorable invoice from Stratta paid by Count Cavour in 1860 for a reception at the Foreign Ministry.
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1860 - Annexation plebiscite at Stoppani
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After conquering the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the plebiscite called for by Garibaldi, which led to the annexation of the city to the unified state on 21 October 1860, was drafted at the Caffè Stoppani, a centre of cultural and political life in Bari.
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1860 - The three Thousand establishments
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Three establishments have ties with General Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Thousand, who landed in western Sicily and went on to conquer the entire Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860, launching the final stage of the unification of Italy. One was the Caffè del Tasso in Bergamo Alta, a recruitment site...
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1860 - Thousand organiser at the San Carlo
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The Garibaldian freemason and politician Francesco Crispi, who organised the expedition of the Thousand and convinced Garibaldi to lead it, loved to drop in at the Caffè San Carlo in Turin, even during his two terms as the prime minister of Italy.
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1859 - Fantoni's "Torta della Pace" for the Villafranca Armistice
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In 1859, Commendator Fantoni, the heart and soul of the café of that name, created the “Torta della Pace” to commemorate the armistice signed in Villafranca, which put to an end the 2nd War of Independence.
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1859 - Des Iles Borromées founder attacks Laveno with Bixio
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On 30 May 1859, upon the request of Garibaldi, Giovanni Omarini, one of the five brothers who set up the Hotel Des Iles Borromées in Stresa, took General Bixio and a group of Cacciatori delle Alpi volunteers by boat to the Lombard shores of Lake Maggiore where they led the attack on the fort of Lav...
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1855 - A soldier-cook at the Corona
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Cavour decided to make Piedmont the centre for the unification of Italy and to achieve this he also used his brilliant foreign policy, as in the case of the Crimean expedition in 1855 entrusted to General Lamarmora, whose Bersagliere cook was the owner of the Ristorante Corona in San Sebastiano Curo...
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1850 - Dreams of unification at Caffè Roma
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From 1850, professionals and merchants of the upper middle-classes, who longed for annexation to Italy, used to meet at the then “Caffè Grande Simeoni”, now Caffè Roma in Borgo Valsugana.
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1848 - Mazzini and Cattaneo at the Grand Café al Porto
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The Ristorante Biaggi in Lugano, the forerunner of the Grand Café Al Porto, was where Giuseppe Mazzini met exiled patriots from 1831 through to 1870. In August 1848 he was here with Carlo Cattaneo, after they had escaped from Milan when the Five Days collapsed. Cattaneo chose exile in Castagnola, n...
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1848 - Revolutionaries and conspirators at the Schenardi
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From 1848 and throughout the early 1850s, police reports in Viterbo revealed that Caffè Schenardi was a meeting place for revolutionaries, conspirators, anarchists, and demagogues – but it was also the favourite establishment of the Papal and French troops.
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1848 - The Tommaseo ignites the flame of freedom
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“In 1848, from this Caffè Tommaseo, the centre of the national movement, the flame of zeal for Italian freedom went forth” states the plaque set up to honour this symbol of Trieste by the Italian National Institute for the history of the Risorgimento.
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1848 - Plotting beneath the Offelleria della Meneghina
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Beneath the Antica Offelleria della Meneghina in Vicenza, there is still the (now closed) cellar which the patriotic conspirators entered from a secret trap door behind the bar during the Austrian siege of 1848.
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1848 - Locanda Mincio in the thick of it
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During the battle of Custoza, on 25 July 1848, the Piedmontese withdrew to Valeggio and here they attacked the Austrians again: the Antica Locanda Mincio was at the very heart of the battle.
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1848 - Gilli sends off Curtatone and Montanara volunteers
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On 20 March 1848, Gilli and other shops in Florence gave supplies to the Tuscan volunteers who marched down Via Calzaioli on their way to the battle of Curtatone and Montanara, where they met with the most efficient army in Europe, headed by Radetzky.
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