And an even closer shot of the mural in the previous two. Perhaps your attention is caught by the woman. Perhaps by the cute little poopa dog.

But no, they and the light are only there for context.

Look below.

This is not just a mural, but in fact a mixed media artwork. The two men below and their books (and their flag) are not merely painted into the wall but are what appear to be either bronze or copper sculptures which are attached to the building.

You see books, you see an Italian guy, you think Dante. But of course neither of these guys is Dante unless he was way ahead of his time in both dress sense and the ability to obtain eyeglasses.

No, instead these are two of the most important figures of Italian unification, the Risorgimento. On the left we have Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (1810-1861), the right hand man of Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Piedmont-Sardinia and Duke of Savoy. Cavour became the first Prime Minister of a unified Italia. Not for long though; less than 3 months after assuming office he would be dead. If the present day Prime Minister of Italy thinks he has problems, those are as nothing compared to the ones that a PM had right after unification.

On the right, I believe that we have Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872). Mazzini is hard to pin down in a couple of paragraphs. He wrote in support of Italian nationalism, he networked, he influenced... and every time he tried to do anything in terms of concrete action like staging an uprising, he failed spectacularly. Nonetheless, he kept trying, inspiring others to do so as well. He seemed to lean toward republican socialism but drew the line at Marxism.

His republican leanings stopped him from throwing his support behind Vittorio Emanuele II and Cavour's constitutional monarchy. Instead he opted for self-exile. (Another leading light in the Risorgimento, the military commander Giuseppe Garibaldi who oddly does not appear here, was also a staunch republican. However he was a more pragmatic one. He swore his allegiance, possibly aware that a constitutional monarchy would be easier to "sell" to the other European nations than a republic would be. It was an important consideration in a time when nations would just raise an army and stomp across your borders if their king thought that you looked at him funny. A newly formed nation, lacking military and industrial infrastructure, needed to avoid wars if possible.)

The separation of Cavour and Mazzini by a stack of books is certainly suitable; I doubt that they would have wanted to spend much time together otherwise.