While all around the community people were wearing kelly green and mylar shamrocks on Thursday, a few friends of mine here, and a whole nation halfway around the world, added white and red to their color scheme.
March 17 was the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. Happy Birthday, Italia! Auguri! Good wishes!
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From Wikipedia’s entry:
Italian unification (Italian: il Risorgimento, or “The Resurgence“) was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century. Despite a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and end of this period, many scholars agree that the process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and the end of Napoleonic rule, and ended sometime around 1871 with the Franco-Prussian War. The last città irredente however, did not join the Kingdom of Italy until after World War I.
