This dazzling monument (1885-1925) on the Piazza Venezia is dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a united Italy. The monument not only celebrates the king but also the unification of Italy as one nation and signals its future destiny for greatness. King Emanuele dominates a central position in the monument, commemorated with a bronze equestrian sculture seated on a decorated marble pedestal. The pedestal’s decorations feature fourteen female allegorical representations of the fourteen aristocratic cities that came under the control of the king with the unification of Italy in 1871. The monument also includes sixteen allegorical sculptures of the different regions in Italy — an allusion to the ancient tradition of provincial allegorical representations common in roman monuments. Furthermore, the equestrian sculpture—an homage to great generals—also originated in the ancient world. Of course, the monument itself is built in a highly classical style, with its use of marble as building material, inclusion of a great colonnade, and overall structural resemblance to ancient sanctuaries. These invocations of Italy’s ancient past were meant to foretell the fate of a unified Italy—legacy to the Roman Empire and a future destined to greatness.