Well, I am a "padanian" aborigin, tracing my ancestry back to th 15th century, and actually i lived very close to you before deciding to migrate to a better climate

and, as a matter of fact, i was in the Northern League. Which I have to admit was a substantial failure, even if (or maybe because) it was an answer to the Northern malaise. One should wonder what might have happened in the early nineties if the NL directorate had a real political manifesto, and a sense of realpolitik too (I've done that a lot, btw, and can just regret that a padan camelot turned out to be just a colossal failure
I don't disagree with you: A Northern italy including Tuscany, umbria and marche would be a very nice and effective state ( a federal one, mind. My political sympathies are all with the early American federalists

).
At least i can blame garibaldi, and the thoudand Northern boneheads who were dragged into that stupid filibustering in 1860

Btw, include also the British among the guilty parties: without the support of the royal navy, garibaldi adventure would have ended before starting.
Or you can go back another 12 years, and think what might have happened if the 1848 revolutionaries had been a bit more sensible and realistic. Some day i would like to write a TL where the insurrection of Lombardy and Venice turns into a success, and the North becomes a federal republic, sooner or later absorbing Romagna, the duchies and Tuscany, and ultimately kicking out the savoys