Have you ever wondered why there is a Via XX Settembre in every Italian town? The first via XX Settembre was named after an event which took place 140 years ago today in Rome.
Italy was unified in 1861 but, although Garibaldi wanted Rome, the historic capital, to be the seat of government, Pope Pius IX refused to cede his temporal power in the city and was supported by the French. Therefore Turin was declared the seat of government in 1861 and the first Italian Parliament sat in Florence in 1865.
In 1862 Garibaldi raised troops in order to attack Rome but the Italian government did not support him and even imprisoned him for a short while. King Vittorio Emanuele II, ever wary of papal power, preferred to reach a peaceful settlement with the Vatican and negotiated French withdrawal from Rome in 1864. In 1867 Garibaldi again tried to capture Rome but was famously defeated at Mentana by papal forces supported by their old ally, the French.
However, when the Franco-Prussian war began in 1870, Napoleon III finally withdrew his garrison from Rome. After the defeat of the French at Sedan, King Vittorio Emanuele II offered Pope Pius IX a peaceful settlement but the offer was refused. Finally, crack Bersaglieri troops entered Rome via the Porta Pia on 20th September 1870, thus completing the Risorgimento or Unification of Italy. In this battle 49 Italian soldiers, four of their officers and 19 papal soldiers were killed.
In the following video: a silent film realized in 1905, which shows the troops entering the Porta Pia in Rome:
Rome and Lazio were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy as the result of a plebiscite held on October 2nd 1870 and the Italian Parliament was moved to Rome in 1871.
Under the Lateran Treaty of 1929, in return for recognition by the Italian government of the Vatican City as a State, the Papacy agreed to cede its claims over the rest of Rome.
After 20th September 1870, every Italian town of any size named a street, usually one leading from its cathedral, Via XX Settembre.
Buon compleanno, Roma!
