In the Five Days of Milan, the rebels sang "Il Canto degli Italiani" during clashes against the Austrian Empire and was sung frequently during the celebrations for the promulgation, by Charles Albert of Sardinia, of the "Statuto Albertino" (also in 1848). Even the brief experience of the Roman Republic (1849) had, among the hymns most sung by the volunteers, "Il Canto degli Italiani", with Giuseppe Garibaldi who used to hum and whistle it during the defense of Rome and the flight to Venice. In the 1860, the corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi used to sing the hymn in the battles against the Bourbons in Sicily and Southern Italy during the Expedition of the Thousand. Giuseppe Verdi, in his "Inno delle nazioni" ("Hymn of the nations"), composed for the London International Exhibition of 1862, chose "Il Canto degli Italiani" to represent Italy, putting it beside "God Save the Queen" and "La Marseillaise".