IL PRIMATO DELLA PATRIA: BALDOVINA VESTRI (1840-1931), L'ULTIMA GARIBALDINA.

The name of Baldovina Vestri is not known beyond the boundaries of her native city, Siena. This paper aims to give back her effective role among the 'sisters of Italy' protagonists in the history of the Risorgimento. Our proposal is also to explore the social and family context in which she developed her adhesion to the political ideals of Garibaldi. In fact he gave to her, daughter of a democratic master mason, the thrust in order to make transgressive choices, like leaving home to follow him in the Rome campaign (1867). From the Eighties, Vestri hocked her in the Public Assistance, while the social appointment in the years of the Great War definitely forged the myth of her as 'secular saint'. She became the icon of a quintessential patriotic spirit able to endure any sacrifice for the homeland. This image survived and became fixed forever under Fascism, but it hid the independence and restlessness, linked to her democratic and anticlerical trust, that qualified her early years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]