Unification of Italy

Hello there. My name is Giuseppe Garibaldi. Can you say Giuseppe? It’s a fun name. A long, long time ago, the place where I lived, Italy, was like a puzzle that had fallen on the floor. All the pieces were scattered about. There was one piece here, and another piece over there. They were not together. I looked at all the little pieces and I had a big dream. I dreamed of putting them all together to make one big, beautiful picture called Italy. I wanted everyone to be part of one happy family.

So, I decided to go on a big adventure. And you can't have an adventure without friends. My friends and I all wore special shirts. Guess what color they were? They were bright red. That's why everyone called us the Redshirts. In the year 1860, we all hopped onto big boats and sailed across the sparkly blue sea. Whee. We landed on a big piece of the puzzle and started marching. March, march, march. Along the way, we met so many new friends who also wanted to put the puzzle together. We waved our flags and sang happy songs. It was a very exciting journey with my wonderful Redshirts.

We did it. We really did it. With help from our good friend, King Victor Emmanuel II, we gathered all the puzzle pieces. We put the bottom piece with the middle piece, and the middle piece with the top piece. Click. Clack. Everything fit perfectly. Italy was not broken anymore. It was one big, whole country. It was like one big, happy family living together in one home. My big dream came true because we all worked together. And that shows that when friends help each other, they can do wonderful things.