Edith Cavell, a 1915 PR disaster

Ok, ok. So she was guilty of helping allied soldiers getting back to their own lines. But just because she is a spy doesn't mean you should shoot her.!?

Oh well. This is the stuff you run in to on your way to the bookshops at Charing Cross Road

Bust of Garibaldi

This bust is displayed at the Risorgimento museum in Genova.

It's an old school museum in transition, now having some multimedia displays.

Yet, it has an intreaguing collection because nationalists and revolutionaries Mazzini and Garibaldi had links to the city. Mazzini lived in the building for a while.

The museum doesn't expect non-Italians, I guess. There were few English texts and promotional material is only in Italian.

Monument for the fallen of the Risorgimento in Tortona

This momument was erected around 1890 in Tortona to commemorate those fallen in the Risorgimento battles.

The period spans from 1848 to 1867

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The list of battlefields includes all those I knew and a few more: Milano, Santa

Lucia, Peschiera (1848) Novara (1849), Palestro, San Martino, Peschiera, Solferino (1859), Milazzo (1860), Custoza, Villafranca, Montesuello (1866) and one battle from 1867 which I can't decipher and can hardly imagine. Not sure whether there was much fighting in 1867, or maybe this guy died of his wounds.

In terms of lives, the 1859/60 campaign was the most costly: 27 lives were lost, of which 10 at Solferino. The 1848/49 war cost 10 lives, and the 1866 campaign 5.

Remarkably, there are three deaths credited to the Crimea in 1854/1855, possibly the Battle of the Chernaya, but equally likely deaths of disease. It is interesting to see the Italians reckoning their participation in the Crimean War so directly to the Risorgimento. A quid pro quo for French intervention in Italy in 1859.

Anyway, 45 deaths in 20 years was a considerable sacrifice for an agricultural community.

Memorial for Italian troops in the Russian campaign

Memorial for the Vicenza division that served on the Eastern Front, 1941-43.