History of Italy Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sack of Rome

In 1527 there was the sack of Rome by the mercenaries (the so-called "Lansquenets") of Charles V of Spain. As for Cristoforo Colombo(also known as Cristóbal Colón or Christopher Columbus), he died in 1506, while the Battle of Pavia (a continuation of "The Italian Wars" which began in 1494) took place in 1525, when Charles V defeated Francis I, King of France.
Finally Michelangelo Buonarroti, one of the most inspired creators in the history of art, died in 1564.

Answer: 1878

Known to his subjects as "Il Re Galantuomo" (The Gentleman King), Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia died in 1878.
He began his as King of Sardinia in 1849, his father having abdicated in his favour on the evening after the Novara disaster.
On March 14, 1861, after unification, the Italian Parliament elected Vittorio Emanuele II King of Italy.

Answer: Girolamo Savonarola

The Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, known by contemporary Florentines as the "sword of the Lord" for his fiery sermons predicting the coming scourge and the downfall of the ruling Medici family, attempted to give Florence a more popular and theocratic rule, but was burned at the stake in 1498, in the Piazza della Signoria, the site of Savonarola's infamous "Bonfires of the Vanities" ( - in Italian, "I bruciamenti delle vanità"), the flames of which consumed many works of Renaissance art and literature.

Answer: Umberto I

Umberto I (or Humbert I) of Italy was assassinated at Monza by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci on the evening of 29 July 1900. Surnamed "the Good", he had been King of Italy since January 9, 1878.
He belonged to the House of Savoy that was a dynasty of nobles who traditionally had their domain in Savoy (a small region between Piedmont, Italy, and France). They became Kings of Sardinia and later of Italy.

Answer: 1494

Charles VIII of France entered Italy, via Piedmont in 1494, marched south to Pisa, Florence, Rome, and commenced the long series of Franco-Italian wars which so characterized Italian affairs in the first half of the 16th century. Defeated at Fornovo in July 1495, he escaped to France at the cost of the loss of most of his forces.

Answer: Italian Unification

Italian Unification, also known as the "Risorgimento", was a historical process by which the Kingdom of Sardinia (ruled by Savoy dynasty - capital Turin) conquered the Italian peninsula including, among other parts, of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.
This unification of Italian City States happened in stages. Count Camillo di Cavour became prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1852. It was his leadership and policies that led to the unification of Italy in little more than a decade.
Giuseppe Garibaldi, commander of the 1000 volunteer "red-shirts"(the so-called "Spedizione dei Mille") provided the military muscle necessary to free Naples and Sicily from Bourbon rule in 1860, while Giuseppe Mazzini provided the intellectual wing of the struggle. But certainly Camillo di Cavour was the political and diplomatic force most directly responsible for Italy's unification. He helped to establish Vittorio Emanuele II as the first king of the newly born Italian nation-state in 1861.

Answer: 1860

On the 6th of May, 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi started with two steamers from Quarto, near Genoa, with about a thousand Italian volunteers (so-called "I Mille") and, after a stop in Talamone, landed near Marsala, on the west coast of Sicily. So, he set out to conquer Sicily and Naples. Shortly afterward, at Calatafimi, his forces defeated the army of the king of Naples, and a popular uprising aided him in capturing Palermo. That summer he skirmished his way to Naples, then fought a major battle on the Volturno River.

After turning over Sicily and Naples to Victor Emmanuel, he retired to his home on the island of Caprera, a small island off the coast of Sardinia.

Answer: Pier Capponi

It was Pier Capponi that said this, in Italian reads: "Se voi suonerete le vostre trombe, noi suoneremo le nostre campane!" It was said in order to assemble the Florentines.
In fact, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy (1494), and attacked Florence, the city, led by Pier Capponi, held out against the French.

Answer: Umberto II

Humbert II (Italian Umberto II), the Prince of Piedmont and later the last King of Italy, was nicknamed the King of May (in Italian "Il Re di Maggio"), as he was King of Italy from May 9, 1946 to June 12, 1946.
Son and successor of Victor Emmanuel III, on the abdication (May, 1946) of his father, who was tainted by his long acquiescence (1922-43) in Fascist rule, Humbert succeeded to the throne, pending a referendum on the monarchy. The referendum (June, 1946) resulted in the establishment of a republic, and Humbert went into exile in Portugal. He died in 1983.

Answer: 1348

The affluent city of Florence, hit by the plague in 1348, had lost nearly half its population by 1351. We can get a sense of the social disruption caused by this catastrophe from the beginning of "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), a collection of popular tales told by young Florentines in a fictional account of their flight from the ravaged city.