I have a soft spot for the 1848's revolutions and insurrections. I think that the "Springtime of Peoples" could have been a decisive turning point for European history, more than it was in OTL. The Habsburg Empire could have collapsed, France could have stayed a Republic, if it had avoided the lure of Bonapartism, Germany and Italy could have maybe been unified earlier and in a different way.
All in all, I think that 1848 was a great lost occasion, as Europe's political and social developement could have been steered on a rather more liberal course, maybe even paving the way for earlier forms of economical and eventually political cooperation, avoiding or reducing the effect of the more extreme forms of nationalism that developed at the end of the XIX century and showed their deadly face during the XX century.
Probably I am painting a too much rosy scenario, but still I think that a more successful 1848 would have been a net gain for the peoples of Europe.
So... what POD could, in your opinion, bring about a more successful and longlasting "Springtime of the Peoples"?
I am an Italian, so I am especially interested in Italian history, and I think that 1848 could have gone far better, bringing about at least a partial unification, if only things had evolved a bit differently.
I already opened
a thread on this topic some time ago (my first thread actually

), where posters like LordKalvan offered very interesting insights on what the revolutionaries in Milan and Venice could have done better, but I think that this may be worthy of a bit more speculation...
For example, the King of the Two Sicilies was forced to declare war to Austria and send north a sizeable expedition (about 16.000 men), but, after Pope Pius IX's turnaround on the 29th of April 1848(1), recalled it before it could enter Veneto, and only the artillery refused to comply. What if the King never recalls the expedition, or if the rest of the army follows general Pepe and the artillery?
Together with the Papal forces (who refused to comply with the Pope's orders and fought against the Austrians in Veneto) they could have defeated Nugent's corps coming from Friaul, or at least slowed them enough to avoid them joining forces with Radetzky, thus saving Venice from the siege and probably causing the Austrian positions in the "Quadrilateral"(2) to become unsustainable.
The Pope himself could have kept on being a paladin of the italian liberals, thus giving greater legitimacy to their cause, and maybe find himself President of the Italian Confederation, as in the projects of neo-guelphs like Gioberti(3).
Finally I think that the role of the Savoy dinasty should be reduced, for the italians to be more successful: it is true that they had the strongest army in Italy, but they were also more interested in acquiring Lumbardy than in unifying Italy, and their conduct of the First War of Independence was really abysmal. I would really like to see Italy unified on more federal and possibly republican terms(4). (I would also very much like a really federal Germany with a capital in Frankfurt and not Berlin, but I am afraid that would require the intervention of even more ASB).
Sorry for the rantish post, I hope it can be the start for an interesting discussion. I am clearly interested in Italy, but feel free of thinking alternative outcomes for France, Hungary and Germany too!
(1) He declared to the Consistory that the military expedition had the only objective of protecting the borders of the Papal States, and that there was no intention of fighting Austria.
(2) A set of four fortified cities (Peschiera, Mantua, Verona and Legnago) dividing Lumbardy from Venetia and protecting the approaches to the Brenner pass.
(3) Ok this is probably impossible, and besides I don't think a stronger Papal State, however liberalised, would be so positive for Italy's political developement...
(4) Wouldn't it be very cool to have an Italy made up of a confuse yet somehow working confederation of Kingdoms, Duchies and Republics? Think of the Flags

...and of a restored Republic of St. Mark in Venice...