The Risorgimento has not been overlooked, at least in Italy (it is the founding myth of the nation), but it has been almost always used as a political tool , both before and after 1945 (which is the other defining year for Italian history): the result is that the history of Risorgimento taught at school is a mishmash of platitudes and stereotypes, which have just a nodding acquaintance with historical events and even more so with historical personages .
What
@Tarabas and I are trying to do here is to build up a different (and hopefully better) approach to the last 170 years of Italian history, by looking at the problems which are still plaguing Italy even now, and building up different ways forward.
The foundation event of this TL is a different outcome of the insurrections and the war of 1848: of course to get that result it was necessary to have an earlier POD (killing off Vittorio Emanuele as an infant - which almost happened IOTL, the fire break out in the nursery is historical - and replacing him with a better heir to the throne, Ferdinand).
From the POD in 1822 until the day that Ferdinand start making his real entry in the world (the Grand Tour of 1837) the butterflies have had quite a limited effect: the birth of a Savoy princess would have impacted the court in Turin (and her future marital prospects would have been considered in the other European courts), but frankly speaking the kingdom of Sardinia was not the center of Europe.
From 1837 onward, things have started to change, slowly, and we have tried to build up a logical explanation behind these changes: Ferdinand's trip to London is an opportunity to meet prince Albert (and it makes sense that they would be sympathetic to each other, with Albert playing the role of an elder brother to young Ferdinand), as well as to become more and more interested in scientific progress and meeting interesting people (ironically, the biggest gain for the kingdom of Sardinia - and ultimately for Italy - came out from one of the few indulgences that Ferdinand allowed himself: buying a posh hunting rifle, and being shown a prototype Minie' bullet. Sheer happenstance, but it might have happened).
Things started to change in a big way in 1848, but again there had been signs in the air for some time (the bad harvests of 1846 and 1847 had resulted in price gouging, famines and unrest among the poorest classes). The insurrection of Palermo in early January (and the unrelated unrest in Milan at the same time, repressed by Austria with a heavy hand) were quite obvious warning bells, and it is not surprising but still damning that no one in Turin had the wit to consider what these events might lead up to. Even more damning that the insurrection of Paris and the end of the Orleans monarchy did not produce any immediate activity in Turin.
ITTL these warning signs were recognized as such, and the world is starting to change quickly, and earlier than it happened IOTL. These means an opportunity for some people who were relegated to the margins of the scene in our history, or who failed because they had been dealt too bad a hand of cards, and couldn't do better, and obviously a loss of opportunity for some people who OTL played a significant role, even in defeat, but ITTL will arrive late on the scene, and will be relegated to the shadows.