This is the Untold Italy travel podcast and you're listening to episode number 112.

Ciao at all and benvenuti to Untold Italy, the travel podcast where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes, hills and coastlines of

Bella Italia.

Each week your host, Katie Clark, takes you on a journey in search of magical landscapes,

history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course, a whole lot of pasta.

If you're dreaming of Italy and planning future adventures there, you've come to the right place.

Ciao, welcome all my Italy-loving friends.

Are you ready to be astounded?

Today, I have a story for you that you couldn't make up.

It involves an incredible woman from a powerful family

that had influence all over Europe

and a palace so grand that some say was more dazzling

than the palace of Versailles in Paris, France.

And that's a little spoiler for what's to come. But let's take a step back and look at what we

know about Italian history. Most of us have a general understanding of ancient Rome and the

Renaissance as it played out in Florence and Venice, but perhaps we don't know so much about

eras beyond that. So bear with me as I give you some context. I promise it is extremely

brief and there is no test at the end. If you've been to Italy, no doubt you've seen

statues of and piazza's named after Garibaldi, Mazini and Kavur. They were the main

protagonists of the Risorgimento, or the movement

to unify the duchies and kingdoms of the Italian peninsula in the 19th century. Prior to unification

in 1861, there was no country known as Italy. Instead, various small kingdoms bide for power

...