Victor Emmanuel II

A monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of Italy, stands regally before the hotel.

A 20th-century monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy, which speaks—loudly—for itself.

In the 1860s, he apprenticed with the master fireworker to King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy; three decades later, he moved to New Jersey and opened his own factory, now called Garden State Fireworks.

Born in 1807, Giuseppe Garibaldi commanded several military campaigns in the mid-19th century that eventually resulted in the unification of Italy - for centuries divided into independent states and often dominated by outside powers - under King Victor Emmanuel II.

He was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, by the side of Victor Emmanuel II., on the 9th of August 1900.