TASCHEN Italy around 1900
"You may have the universe," composer Giuseppe Verdi once said, "if I can Italy." Back in mid 19th century, Verdi's emotive language appealed to patriotic sentiments of an emergent nation state. After decades of struggle and bloodshed, movement known as Risorgimento triumphed with 1861 proclamation of Italian Unity, assembling disparate kingdoms, territories, borders that had hitherto been ruled by Austria, Kingdom of Sardinia, Papal States. Today,