Builders of United Italy

In a Italy still divided into scattered states, a yearning for a common voice simmered beneath apathy. Into that atmosphere stepped Vittorio Alfieri, a poet whose fierce imagination would awaken a sense of national identity that had long been dormant. His dramatic verses and outspoken ideas soon resonated with citizens from Turin to Naples, echoing the spirits of Dante, Petrarch, and Tasso.

Born in 1749 to a modest noble family in Asti, Alfieri lost his father within his first year and was raised by a stepfather whose discipline clashed with the boy’s restless spirit. He entered the Academy of Turin, where he rejected conventional learning, preferring the chatter of foreign companions and the thrill of riding his growing stable of horses. This early defiance and his love of French literature forged the independent, outspoken character that would later shape his fiery poetry and public advocacy.