Messina fell on the 10th of July, but Garibaldi, instead of crossing to Calabria, secretly departed for Aranci Bay in Sardinia, where Bertani was fitting out an expedition against the papal states.
Until the union of Italy they were comprised in Tuscany and the southern Papal States.
Equally extensive, but less important in the political sphere, were the Papal States and Veneti, the former torpid under the obscurantist rule of pope and cardinals, the latter enervated by luxury and the policy of unmanly complaisance long pursued by doge and council.
This aim prompted the annexation of Tuscany, and his intervention in the affairs of the Papal States.
It was all-important that whatever victories Garibaldi might win should be won for the Italian kingdom, and, above all, that no ill-timed attack on the Papal States should provoke an intervention of the powers.
