Italy's 150° Anniversary :: Buon Compleanno Italia!!

Today I supposed to be at home on holiday, but considering all the work is expecting me at the office, I feel better to be productive and go to work.

By the way, today most of italians are on vacation and they have rediscovered a new national holiday. In fact today we celebrate our 150th anniversary since Italy has been united in one State in 1861. At that time we had a king and Italy wasn't a Republic (as it is known in the modern era) but it was a Reign (Regno d'Italia). The first capital was Turin, later Florence and in the end, only in 1870, Rome. At the beginning Turin was the seat of the kingdom and the place where the parliament was. Trentino-Alto Adige (the region where we live) was Austria in that period and we were annexed to the rest of the country only in 1919, after WW1. My ancestors, who left Italy to go to the U.S.A. before 1919 were registered upon arrival at Ellis Island in New York as austrian people and I had proof of this when I went to search their registration books when I visited Ellis Island in 2003. What an experience it was!!! :)

I must admit that Italians aren't usually very patriotic, but today something has changed. We identify ourselves more into the idea of State, upon politic parties or religions. Today my perception and prospective of being italian has improved a little more, and - beside the facts that I haven't an italian flag to expose on my balcony and that I have arbitrary decided to go to work today (sorry, mr. President!) I feel somehow proud to be part of a country that - among many problems and difficulties - has always been competitive and willing to excel in arts, manufacturing, design, fashion, food and so on. Italy has grown much in the last 150 years, and even though much has been done to reach what we are now, the road to perfection is still long and full of perils, so we must be united - today more than before - to face a world that is changing and a continuous economic competition from emerging countries.

Italy is an amazing place where to live, where to come visiting, where to have fun and where come to eat the best food. We are far from being the perfect place, the paradise is far far away and we are conscious of that, but I find it's a great idea to have a day to celebrate our status as citizens and our country, to improve our sense of State and a new sense of unity from the Alps to the greek temples in Sicily. Our story put together different parts - some very different from one another - of a country that has always been divided into different states, under the domination of foreign countries such as Austria, Germany, Spain and France. This diversification of people in a small country like Italy didn't help immediate identification into a whole country, but things have changed and now we try to be good citizens in a country that is rediscovering patriotism and love towards the 3-color flag.

Happy Birthday, Italia! Let's celebrate! ;)