He was not a king nor a national hero: but all Italians remember him without divisions or partisanship The Centenary of the Unknown Soldier reminds us of that man to whom, uninterruptedly, all Italians pay homage, without divisions or partisanship. He is not a national hero, not a great general, not a King, not even a President of the Republic. Perhaps he was a humble peasant from the South, or a mountaineer from Piedmont, or a fisherman from the Adriatic Riviera... There is also a one in 200.000 chance - that is how many unidentified bodies there were at the end of the Great War - that it could be precisely that irredentist lieutenant, son of Maria Bergamas. We will never know...