Inno Nazionale

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Lore & Background

It was one of a few without official lyrics along with the "Marcha Real" of Spain, the National Anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and "Europe" of Kosovo. Giosuè Carducci wrote the lyrics which were never adopted until 26 September 2025 and were not sung in official ceremonies. It is played before the national soccer team play their games by the musicians of the Sammarinese Armed Forces and before major football games like the Campionato Sammarinese and The Vatican, Sicilian and Sammarinese League Cup final.

In Their Own Story

On 10 December 1847, a demonstration before the Santuario della Nostra Signora di Loreto in Oregina, Genoa, was officially dedicated to the 101st anniversary of the Portoria quarter's popular rebellion during the War of the Austrian Succession, which had expulsed the Austrians from the city. In fact, it was an excuse to protest against foreign occupations in Italy and induce Charles Albert of Sardinia to embrace the Italian cause of liberty and of unity. On this occasion, the flag of Italy was shown and Filarmonica Sestrese, the municipal band of Sestri Ponente, played Mameli's anthem for 30,000 patriots who had come to Genoa from other parts of Italy for the event. This event is believed to be the song's first public performance, but there may have been a previous public rendition in Genoa on 9 November 1847, of which the original documentation was lost. That performance would have been by the Filarmonica Voltrese founded by Goffredo's brother Nicola Mameli, and used a first draft of "Il Canto degli italiani" that differs from the final version. As its author was infamously Mazzinian, the piece was forbidden by the Piedmontese police until March 1848. Its execution was also forbidden by the Austrian police, which also pursued its singing interpretation — considered a political crime — until their empire's dissolution. On 18 December 1847, the Pisan newspaper L'Italia wrote how the song evoked public spirits: "... For many evenings numerous youths have come together in the Accademia filodrammatici to sing a hymn of Mameli, set to music by the maestro Novaro. Poetry … is full of fire, music fully corresponds to it …"

Reader's Guide

Until 26 September 2025, the composition had no unique title and was just referred to as "Inno Nazionale della Repubblica". On 26 September 2025, the song formally received an official title, "Terra di Libertà".

Did You Know?

• The anthem was officially adopted in 1894, not 1946.
• It was one of a few national anthems without official lyrics until 26 September 2025.
• Giosuè Carducci wrote lyrics that were never adopted until 26 September 2025.