The anniversary was celebrated in Rome in the presence of the Defense Summits
This morning, in Rome, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the breach of Porta Pia, the Undersecretary of State for Defense the Honorable Angelo Tofalo and the mayor, Dr. Virginia Raggi, accompanied by the representative of the Lazio Region by the Chief of Defense Staff , General Enzo Vecciarelli and the Army Chief of Staff, Army Corps General Salvatore Farina, placed a laurel wreath in memory of the fallen at the commemorative plaque of the battle of 1870, along the Aurelian walls.
A picket armed with Bersaglieri, the body of the Army protagonist of the capture of Rome, paid the honors to the authorities by wearing the historical uniform supplied to the troops of the time.
It was September 20, 1870 when the Italian soldiers, under the command of General Raffaele Cadorna, starting from 4 in the morning launched the attack against the papal militias to enter Rome. The first cannon shot was fired at 5.10am, by an artillery battery commanded by Captain Giacomo Segre and deployed about 500 meters from the Aurelian walls. In just under 4 hours of shelling, the fire of the Italian artillery opened a breach of about thirty meters in the defensive walls, to the right of Porta Pia. It was at that point that the infantry of the 12th Division (12th Bersaglieri and 2nd Battalion of the 41st Infantry) and the left column of the 11th Division (34th Bersaglieri and part of the 19th Infantry) collided with the Zouaves in command. by General Kanzler. The men of the papal defense surrendered to the advance of the Bersaglieri and the battle ended with dozens of victims in both sides: 49 fallen in the ranks of the Italian Army (the first was Major Giacomo Pagliari) and 69, including deaths and wounded, in the papal ranks.
The breach of Porta Pia is considered the last real battle of the Risorgimento and the first that, not even ten years after the unification of Italy, saw soldiers from all walks of life, coming from all regions of Italy, fight under the same flag. Country. It was therefore not only a Piedmontese war but a national one. In the Divisions and Battalions that entered Rome in that 1870 there was in fact that same mixture of men from the north and the south that 45 years later will be found in the trenches of the First World War.
A few days after the "breach", a popular plebiscite sanctioned the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy and the following year, in February, the Eternal City was officially proclaimed the Capital of Italy.
Among the first to enter Rome were the Bersaglieri, a military corps established on 18 June 1836 by royal decree of King Carlo Alberto of Savoy, on the proposal of the then Captain of the Guards Alessandro Ferrero della Marmora. Originally selected troops of the then Sardinian Army, then Royal Italian Army, and an expression of speed, high mobility and shooting ability. Since then, the plumed infantrymen have written the most important pages of the Risorgimento and of the history of Italy: from the wars of independence to the first interventions in aid of the population, such as for the aid given in Reggio Calabria and Messina for the 1908 earthquake; from the two world wars to the current international operations abroad, up to the use within our borders in support of the police forces or for cases of public calamity. The Bersaglieri are today a specialty of the Infantry full of history and traditions, admired by the Italians for their characteristic race to the sound of the fanfare, appreciated for their presence on the territory, for the support offered to citizens, as well as for the generosity, the altruism and love of country that have always characterized this historic Corps of the Italian Army.
Artillery has also changed and evolved from 1870 to today. Always a weapon in charge of combat support for infantry, the direct firing guns of the wars of the 800s have given way to modern howitzers mounted on rotated carriages or tracked vehicles, which allow you to hit opposing lines up to over 40 km of distance and with particular ammunition also 70 and 100 km. The use of artillery continues to vary over time with the acquisition of increasingly sophisticated and efficient materials. And if once the shooting could be directed by the deployment of the pieces, today the increase in ranges has required the constitution of agile units capable of infiltrating the territory, controlling it and acquiring objectives in depth.
In summary, the conquest of Rome and the annexation of the Papal State to the Kingdom of Italy was the result of a multi-armed choral effort by the young Italian Army but it was also an event that received the consent of the Roman people, who with the subsequent plebiscite sanctioned the unity of purpose and harmonious partnership between the Army and citizens.