I've been contemplating a TL where Franz Joseph is successfully assassinated in 1853, leading to Maximilian being crowned as Emperor of Austria. Now, my problem is that I don't really know how he would handle Italo-Austrian relations. Given that both he and Cavour were liberals, I have no problems seeing them forge an alliance, but since Austria owned a good chunk of Northern Italy, I'm not sure how this could be properly pulled off without pissing off either everyone in Piedmont or everyone in Austria. Plus, even if an Austro-Italian alliance was created, how would the Crimean War be handled? Since the Austrian Empire was basically saved by Russian intervention in the 1848 alliance, I can't see many people (especially aristocrats) being amused by Austria declaring war on Russia.