1 General view of the Forum (copyright © Gerard Degeorge/Bridgeman Art Library)
2 Bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero (Musei Capitolini, Rome/Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library)
3 Virgil (70–19 BC) and the two muses, from the house of Virgil in Hadrumetum, Sousse, Tunisia, early 3rd century (Musée du Bardo/Akg-images/Erich Lessing)
4 Empress Theodora with her court of two ministers and seven women, Byzantine School, c. 547 AD (San Vitale, Ravenna/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
5 Dante reading from the ‘Divine Comedy’ (detail), by Domenico di Michelino (1417–91) (Duomo, Florence/Bridgeman Art Library)
6 Bologna, Torre degli Asinelli (built 1109–19) and Torre Garisenda (built 1110) (Akg-images/Electra)
7 Trani Cathedral (built 1150–1250) (Trani, Apulia/Akg-images/Schütze/Rodemann)
8 San Michele in Foro, Lucca (San Michele in Foro, Lucca/Bridgeman Art Library)
9 Palazzo Vecchio, Florence; photograph 1890 (Akg-images)
10 Façade of Santa Maria Novella, by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), built c. 1458–70 (Santa Maria Novella, Florence/Bridgeman Art Library)
11 Portrait of Isabella d’Este (1474–1539), by Titian (c. 1488–1576), 1536 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria/Ali Meyer/Bridgeman Art Library)
12 Portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro (1422–82), Duke of Urbino, by Piero della Francesca (c. 1415–92), c. 1465 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
13 Portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–74), by Agnolo Bronzino (1503–72), c. 1559 (Galleria Sabauda, Turin/Bridgeman Art Library)
14 Pope Julius II (detail from The Mass of Bolsena, the Stanza dell’Eliodor), by Raphael (1483–1520), 1511–14 (Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City/Bridgeman Art Library)
15 Exterior of the Ducal Palace, Venice, by John Ruskin (1819–1900) (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford/Bridgeman Art Library)
16 The Miracle of the Relic of the True Cross on the Rialto Bridge, by Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1460/5–1523/6), 1494 (Galleria dell’Academia, Venice/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
17 Kaiser Joseph II and the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany, by Pompeo Batoni (1708–87), 1769 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna/Bridgeman Art Library)
18 General Bonaparte Giving Orders at the Battle of Lodi, 10 May 1796, by Louis Lejeune (1775–1848), c. 1804 (Chateau de Versailles/Bridgeman Art Library)
19 Front of La Scala Theatre, by Angelo Inganni (1807–80), built 1852 (Civica Raccolta Stampe Bertarelli, Milan/Bridgeman Art Library)
20 Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), c. 1886 (Akg-images)
21 Massimo d’Azeglio (1798–1866), by Francesco Hayez (1791–1882), 1860 (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan/copyright © 2006 Alinari/Topfoto)
22 Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) (Archives Larousse, Paris/Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library)
23 Count Camillo Benso di Cavour (1810–61) (private collection/Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library)
24 Ferdinand of Savoy (1822–55), Duke of Genoa, by Alfonso Balzico (1825–1901) (copyright © 2006 Alinari/Topfoto)
25 Victor Emanuel II (1820–78), King of Sardinia and Italy, by P. Litta (Service Historique de l’Armée de Terre, France/Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Art Library.
26 Francesco II of Bourbon (1836–94) of the Two Sicilies and his wife Queen Maria Sofia of Bavaria (1841–1925), c. 1865 copyright ©Alinari/Topfoto)
27 Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) (private collection/Bridgeman Art Library)
28 Giuseppe Garibaldi at Caprera, by Pietro Senno (1831–1904) and Vincenzo Cabianca (1827–1902) (Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Florence/Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library)
29 The Italian Camp at the Battle of Magenta, June 1859, by Giovanni Fattori (1823–1908) (Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Florence/Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library)
30 Panorama of Naples (copyright © 2006 Alinari/Topfoto)
31 Piazza Castello, Turin (copyright © 2006 Alinari/Topfoto)
32 Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) making a speech, by A. Pompeiani, 1925–30 (Museo di Storia della Fotografia Fratelli Alinari, Florence/Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library)
33 Italian Fascists carrying captured pictures of Karl Marx, Lenin and Trotsky on their arrival in Rome (copyright © Topfoto)
34 Olivetti, by Marcello Dudovich, 1926 (Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti, Ivrea)
35 Sculpture of nude Roman and rearing horse, Palazzo della Civilta Italiana, EUR, Rome (copyright © Clement Guillaume/Bridgeman Art Library)
36 Giuseppe di Lampedusa and Lucio Piccolo, 1926 (photograph in the possession of the author; photographer unknown)
37 Enrico Berlinguer (copyright © 2006 Alinari/Topfoto)
38 Alcide De Gasperi (1881–1954), c. 1950 (Akg-images)
39 Silvio Berlusconi with two unidentified women, Porto Rotondo, Sardinia (Antonio Satta/AP/Press Association Images)