Divided Italy

What if we have an Italian state in the North and an independant Republic of Sicily?

I know I am going to be bombarded with messages stating it as an "AH cliché", so I have come prepared. Although nationalism made the idea of a united state possible, it rarely made a significant impact on the course of events that led up to unification. With the exception of Garibaldi the main effort of unification was done by politicians in Sardinia-Piedmont, not Italy as a whole. So I see it as perfectly plausable for Italy to remain divided into two nations, with the possibility of an independant Papal State.

It's been a long time since I've done the history of Italian unification (A Level in the mid 80s) but I seem to remember that Garibaldi's forces only got from Sicily to Naples because the RN was hanging around and effectively discouraged anyone from stopping Garibaldi's forces.

Would removing this 'intervention' be enough? Perhaps as Garibaldi now sits in Sicily and tries to work out how to cross to Naples, Piedmont-Sardinia sweeps southwards, to prevent him doing so?

Didn't Cavour himself argue against the annexation of Naples? I think he considered it so poor that its annexation would only bring problems for the kingdom. In fact, Garibaldi's expedition did not have real support from the Italian government, at least at first.

So just have Garibaldi failing to take control of Sicily and you will end with an united northern Italy, a continued Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (or republic, if King Bomba is kicked out) and probably a surviving Papal States too.

Well, fulfilling my usual role:
url=http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/alternate_history/disunited_italy


Of course, its not fully that cliche. An independant Sicily-Naples might actually work. After all, it never was part of the medieval Kingdom of Italy...

So too would an independent Papal State, although by this point the Papacy only remained independent because of the goodwill of the French Second Empire