‘Purtroppo s’è fatta l’Italia, ma non si fanno gli italiani’. This well-known sentence, quoted in various versions and generally — though perhaps erroneously — attributed to the Piedmontese writer and liberal minister Massimo d’Azeglio, encapsulates the idea that, although Italy as a nation was formally born in 1861, the nation-building process that followed would require further major efforts.1 After political unification, the foundations for the establishment of a national identity, linked to a shared language, history, traditions, and culture in general had yet to be laid.