La Farina, Giuseppe 1815-63
Italian revolutionary and writer

Born in Messina, he was forced to leave his native Sicily in 1837 and settled in Florence. He returned when revolution broke out in 1848 and joined the Provisional Government. After the failure of the Revolutions of 1848-49, he went to live first in Paris and then in Turin. By 1853 he had come to believe in the idea of Italian unification under the King of Sardinia-Piedmont and in 1856 he founded the Italian National Society. In 1859 he helped to instigate and orchestrate a number of liberal/nationalist revolutions in central Italy which were used by the Conte di Cavour as a pretext for subsequent annexation by Piedmont. The following year he was sent by Cavour to Sicily to try to prevent Garibaldi exerting too much influence over the course of events on the island, but poor relations with the great military hero led to his withdrawal.