This memorial plaque is affixed on the façade of the Palazzo Senatorio at the Capitoline Hill, which is the main seat of Rome's Mayor. In this way you can understand how the history is made of commemorative words and inscriptions, like in this case. Let's analyze better what happened almost two centuries ago, when Rome became officialy the capitol of Italy. 

In fact this marble plaque remembers an event that changed the political and social balance of this millenary city: the annexation, or better the plebiscite, of Rome in the newborn Kingdom of Italy. It was the October 2nd, a sunday, of the 1870, a short time after the Breach of Porta Pia, which was the military conquest of Rome. The Italian Government proclaimed its intention to allow citizens, as well as done with the other Italian regions and towns, to choose a side. The choice was easy: be an official citizen of the new kingdom or be a subject of the pope (who had that time was ruling in a political way Rome)?. And the formula that was chosen, the one that appeared on the cards used to vote, was:"We want to be united to the Kingdom of Italy, under the constitutional monarchy of King Vittorio Emanuele II and his successors". Yes or no?

Moreover it's time to tell you how the pontiff, who immediately proclaimed himself a war prisoner, he made numerous appeals to the abstention, advised the catholics that it was better to refuse to vote, in order to don't enjoy the political life of this kingdom (and of course avoiding to loose subjects). At the beginning the pope of that year, Pius IX, tried to stop the vote at the Rione Borgo, the small neighborhood around the Vatican area. a decision that was revoked pretty soon. We have not to forget how Pius IX was not very popular in Rome, because some years before, due to political troubles, he first lost his throne before to take it again with bombs and war (click here to learn more about this important episode for the history of Rome).

However, despite of all the attempts of the pope, the result of the votation was very clear: the 98,89% was for the yes, l’1,11% for no. A total of 40.785 romans voted for the annexation, compared to only 46 people who voted for no. So it is an example how sometimes a referendum could really change a lot. A simple vote changed and completely  altered the face and the history of Rome, which became officialy a city ruled by an ordinary king, not by a man as a Pope who was the political but also the religious leader. We have to imagine how for centuries Rome was simply a theocracy. The new status quo remained more or less unaltered until the end of the World War II, when, with another referendum, the whole of Italy decided to abandon the Monarchy in favour of a Republic.