Organised as part of the celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, which culminate in the Night of the Tricolour on 16th-17th March 2011, the exhibition documents the most important events that took place between 1859 and 1866, in other words, from the second War of Independence to the annexation of Venice and the Veneto to the Kingdom of Italy.

It comprises a vast iconographic collection and extensive selection of historic documents that are mostly from the Venetian Risorgimento civic collections, as well as a group of other works from other important Italian museums such as the Museum of the Risorgimento in Milan, Miramare Castle in Trieste and the Civic Museums of Udine and Pordenone.

The exhibition is divided into different sections that begin on the first floor, in the spectacular ball room, with In the Shadow of the Tricolour: Venice living in hope; it continues following the exhibition itinerary of the historic collections of the Correr Museum, with a closer study of Habsburg Cartography, numismatics and coinage during the period Venice went from Austrian to Italian rule; it ends with a selection of rare photographs of the city in that period. The exhibition continues in the rooms on the floor above with Austria in Venice, evoked by the official portraits of the imperial couple and other iconographic material concerning the construction of the trans-lagoon railway bridge that marked the end of the insularity of Venice. Following the section dedicated to numerous photographs portraying protagonists of that period, both illustrious and non, we come to the section dedicated to Awaiting Unification; the exhibition then ends with

a vast section of Venice joins Italy with paintings, drawings, posters and sketches for commemorative monuments of Risorgimento heroes, as well as many other relics and rarities.