Italy celebrates 150 years of unification

ROME, March 17 (UPI) -- Crowds celebrated the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification Thursday, but factions opposing centralization said they objected to the national holiday.

Hundreds of thousands in large cities such as Rome and Turin attended all-night shows, concerts and fireworks, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The events kicked off a year of initiatives, ANSA reported.

Foreign heads of state have been invited to anniversary festivities June 2, Italy's Republic Day national holiday, ANSA said.

''We are celebrating the best of our nation. Without unity our nation would have been swept away by history. If we are united, we will overcome all the challenges that await us," Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is one of those invited to the June 2 event, encouraged "all Americans to learn more about the history of Italian unification and to honor the enduring friendship between the people of Italy and the people of the United States."

Many towns staged re-enactments of Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaign to bring together the various Italian peninsular states that culminated in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

But members of the Northern League were jeered when they set up a desk outside the town hall in Milan to indicate they were not taking part in the day to celebrate, ANSA reported.

The headline in La Padania, the Northern League's newspaper, read "150 years of damaging centralism" and said the appropriate celebration will come when the government's federalism project ends.