I recently spent a well deserved few days on holiday in Italy, Rome and Naples to be exact, and I had a jolly time of it as well!
Whilst there I got speaking to some Italian fellow, about twenty years old or so named Umberto, we were outside the hostel smoking, and as is often the case we got chatting over our smokes, we talked about Rome and his native Turin, we spoke of Naples and it’s problems with rubbish and corruption(and believe me I’ve not seen that amount of rubbish on any city street anywhere)
One thing we talked about struck me, we talked about the different regions of Italy and the forced unification of Italy, which he described as a conquest of Italy by his region(Piedmont) and speaking of this he agreed with me that Italian unification was the worst thing to happen to Italy.
Two things struck me, he is obviously intelligent to know anything of the complexities of Italian history, most people have no idea or interest in any history, the other thing was that he was opposed to the official state version of history and saw the end of the Tuscan, Parman, Modenese and Milanese duchies, the Neapolitan realm and the other assorted Italian polities as an historic mistake!
Well as you can imagine having someone intelligent to talk to was a bit of a treat and we ended up with a few other hostel dwellers at a fine Roman trattoria debating the finer points of Italian history and the influence of the Masonic Cavour and Garibaldi in pushing those events!
So don’t give up hope, there are still young westerners who are aware of what’s happening and independent enough of mind to enquire into the facts, I hope to keep in touch with him and explore his beliefs a bit further!
Irish Tory 