page_title: Italian unification
section_title: Mentana and Villa Glori
hierarchical_section_title: Italian unification / Rome / Mentana and Villa Glori
context_page_description: Italian unification, also known as the Risorgimento, was the 19th century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian peninsula into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1861, when Rome was officially designated the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
  Some of the states that had been targeted for unification did not join the Kingdom of Italy until 1918, after Italy defeated Austria–Hungary in World War I. For this reason, historians sometimes describe the unification period as continuing past 1861, to include activities during the late 19th century and the First World War, and reaching completion only with the Armistice of Villa Giusti on November 4, 1918. This more expansive definition of the unification period is the one presented, for example, at the Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano.
context_section_description: The national party, with Garibaldi at its head, still aimed at the possession of Rome, as the historic capital of the peninsula.  In 1867 Garibaldi made a second attempt to capture Rome, but the papal army, strengthened with a new French auxiliary force, defeated his poorly armed volunteers at Mentana.  Subsequently, a French garrison remained in Civitavecchia until August 1870, when it was recalled following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War.
  Before the defeat at Mentana on 3rd November 1867 , Enrico Cairoli, his brother Giovanni, and 70 companions had made a daring attempt to take Rome. The group had embarked in Terni and floated down the Tiber. Their arrival in Rome was to coincide with an uprising inside the city. On 22 October 1867, the revolutionaries inside Rome seized control of the Capitoline Hill and of Piazza Colonna. Unfortunately for the Cairolis and their companions, by the time they arrived at Villa Glori, on the northern outskirts of Rome, the uprising had already been suppressed. During the night of 22 October 1867, the group was surrounded by Papal Zouaves, and Giovanni was severely wounded. Enrico was mortally wounded and bled to death in Giovanni's arms.
  With Cairoli dead, command was assumed by Giovanni Tabacchi who had retreated with the remaining volunteers into the villa, where they continued to fire at the papal soldiers. These also retreated in the evening to Rome. The survivors retreated to the positions of those led by Garibaldi on the Italian border.
caption: Garibaldi at Mentana, 3 November 1867
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