Correval'anno di grazia 1870: The judicial prison

Augusto Parenti, a fervent patriot, is locked up in a narrow cell. Prison is a dark and oppressive place, a symbol of papal repression. Parenti, despite the harsh conditions, keeps his revolutionary spirit alive, encouraging his fellow prisoners not to lose hope. The Prison is the Palazzo Baronale, located in Piazza San Nicola in Mentana (Rome), formerly the mayor's office in L'esorciccio.

PLOT
In Rome still under papal rule, but on the eve of becoming the capital of Italy, numerous political prisoners, guilty of wishing for the end of temporal power, languished in prison. Some, after some time, gave in and asked the Pope for a pardon; others, more firm in their ideas, decisively refused it. Among them was a commoner, Augusto Parenti, who, despite being seriously ill, stubbornly resisted. As liberal-minded as he is, his wife Teresa, an energetic and courageous woman, tries as best she can to get by, for herself and her little son Mario, until, driven by need, she accepts the advice of a priest friend, Don Aldo, and sends the child to the seminary. As the day of the liberation of Rome approaches, a patriot, a friend of Augusto's, clandestinely penetrates the city with a load of weapons and calls on Teresa to gather his comrades. Most of them back down. Finally, almost without a shot in the arm, but also amidst the scant enthusiasm of the population, the Piedmontese entered Rome. Penetrated into the prisons, at the head of a group of proud commoners, Teresa frees her husband, who, exhausted by illness, dies in her arms: before seeing him expire, however, Teresa will describe to him in triumphant tones the liberation of Rome, as he had always dreamed it would be.