They bombarded Rome and, as chance would have it, a French cannonball smashed right into the sumptuous great hall of Prince Colonna's Palace. Now, this is one of my favourite secrets of Rome, because that Napoleonic cannonball embedded itself in Prince Colonna's marble staircase, and it's still there to this day. Thanks to the support of Napoleon III, the Pope still ruled Rome. But Mazzini's vision of Rome as the capital of Italy lived on. In 1870, Napoleon III fell, the French withdrew, and the army of the new nation of Italy entered Rome. Commanded by Victor Emmanuel, king of the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy. He made Rome his capital, while its former ruler, the Pope, retreated behind the walls of the Vatican, where he melodramatically declared himself a prisoner. Secularism had taken control of the Holy City. A vast monument in honour of King Victor Emmanuel was erected to dominate the Rome of the past and dwarf its religious buildings.


他们（指法国军队）对罗马展开猛烈攻击；巧的是，法军的一颗大炮弹正好砸进科隆纳王子宫殿里那豪华的大厅。接下来这个是罗马诸多秘密中我最爱的之一——拿破仑军队的那颗炮弹当时整个嵌入了宫殿的大理石楼梯，它直到今天还是在那儿。由于拿破仑三世的扶持，教皇仍统治着罗马。但马兹尼把罗马城立为意大利首都的愿景还得以延续着。1870年，拿破仑三世败北，法国人撤离（之时），意大利这个新国家则进军罗马。其军队统领是维克托·伊曼纽尔，新成立不久的意大利王国之君主。他把都城定在罗马，而罗马的前统治者，亦即教皇，则退避到梵蒂冈宫的高墙背后。在那，他煞有介事地宣称自己是一名囚徒。世俗主义占领了神圣之城。一座纪念国王维克托·伊曼纽尔的高大纪念碑立了起来，雄踞着旧时的罗马并使其宗教建筑相形见绌。