Bust of Giuseppe Mazzini

Mazzini, born in Genoa in 1805, joined the Carbonari as a young man; he was arrested in 1830 and while in prison he decided to go beyond their methods and objectives. Mazzini understood that forcing Kings to grant reforms or seeking their help was wrong. The people had to be mobilized in a plan of democratic participation in order to create a new unified Republic. Forced to choose between exile and confinement, he chose the former so that he could have more freedom to act.