"Tra l'Alpe ed il mare". L'invenzione della patria

The men of Risorgimento appeal to the particular physical configuration of Italy and the natural boundaries (Alps and seas) that separate them from all the other lands, to attribute to their national unification programme the inevitable sense of the historical fulfillment of a destiny. In this perspective, the Apennines are not perceived as an element of division and fragmentation of the territory, but on the contrary as the seam that holds the peninsula, its spine. Langella also explains why only from a certain point forward the patriotic lyric inglobes Sicily in the national borders.