Cavour, having returned to power, advocated a plan for a new government based on regional autonomy. The author of the plan was the new Minister of the Interior, Luigi Carlo Farini. However, it was he who first raised the alarm in Cavour when, on October 27, 1860, while visiting the newly acquired territories in the South, he wrote: “But, my friend, what kind of countries are these? Molise is Terra di Lavoro! What barbarism! Far from Italy! This is Africa: the Bedouins, compared to these louts, are the very embodiment of civil virtue. And what great and how many misdeeds!” Cavour would therefore change his mind starting in December 1860, favoring a solid unification of Italy, shelving any plans for decentralization.
