You could say the same about Germany where there's also huge regional differences (even bigger ones due to religion).
It's very hard to imagine European and world history without a united Italy.
Italian unification success was one (albeit not the primary one, which was the rivalry with Austria) major source of pressure on Prussian elites [1].
We look at history at very abstract level, but in 1861/62 Prussian newspapers were all into "look at how Cavour did in Italy, unlike that incompetent Bismarck".
It's very hard to imagine European and world history without a united Italy.
Italian unification success was one (albeit not the primary one, which was the rivalry with Austria) major source of pressure on Prussian elites [1].
We look at history at very abstract level, but in 1861/62 Prussian newspapers were all into "look at how Cavour did in Italy, unlike that incompetent Bismarck".
[1] https://alg.manifoldapp.org/read/contested-visions-the-histo...