“Garibaldi is the only wholly admirable figure in modern history.” – A.J.P. Taylor (English Historian)
Have I mentioned before my personal challenge to find as many statues of Giuseppe Garibaldi that I can? Probably.
It is an easy sort of challenge because almost every town and city in Italy has a statue of the national hero. It is not like trying to find the Holy Grail or discover the benefits of BREXIT.
After the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 the country worked hard at making sure that Garibaldi would remembered in perpetuity and the number of streets, piazzas and statues named after him makes him probably the most commemorated secular figure in history.
Interestingly however in a TV poll of 20110 Il più grande italiano di tutti i tempi (“The greatest Italian of all times”) Garibaldi didn’t even make the top ten, the top three were Leonardo da Vinci, Giuseppe Verdi and two Sicilian judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino who challenged the power of the Mafia in Sicily and were murdered for their trouble.
When I visit Italy it has become a sort of challenge for me to find the statue of Garibaldi. If I went more regularly to Germany then I am sure that I would look for statues of Otto Von Bismarck.
I was especially pleased to find this very fine example in some commemorative gardens in Ortigia.
A few years ago I wrote a post in which I speculated on whether Giuseppe Garibaldi may indeed be the most celebrated secular man ever to be recreated in statue form across the World and survived.
Other Garibaldi Statues in Italy…
Have Bag, Will Travel 