OUR NAMESAKE

The Garibaldina Society proudly bears its name in honor of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the 19th century Italian General.

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807 – 1882) was the foremost military figure and popular hero of the age of Italian unification known as the Risorgimento.  Garibaldi devoted his life to the cause of Italian unity and his greatest triumph was the 1860 overthrow of the Kingdom of Naples, the event which precipitated Italian unification. In May of that year, Garibaldi landed in Sicily with a volunteer force of 1070 men (the "Thousand"). Within two weeks this force had taken the city of Palermo, forcing the capitulation of an army of 20,000 regulars. In August Garibaldi crossed to the Italian mainland, routing the Neapolitan army in a series of victories and capturing Naples itself within the month. Garibaldi's March became one of the great legends of the nineteenth century.  

So revered by the Italian military, five ships have been commissioned bearing Garibaldi’s name: the Giuseppe Garibaldi (1981) is the fourth ship of the Italian Navy named after the 19th century Italian General.  Previous ships with the same name are a frigate (1861),  an armored cruiser (1901), a light cruiser (1936), extensively re-built as a missile cruiser in 1961.   All of the five ships including the missile cruiser, together with an image of Garibaldi, are depicted in the Garibaldi Crest seen here, which is proudly displaced on its namesake ships.