The Conte di Cavour then made the unification of Italy under Sardinian leadership his goal. Cavour allied the country with Britain and France when Sardinia entered the Crimean War in 1854. Sardinia's participation in the war brought the Italian Question to the eyes of the great powers at the Paris peace conference. Cavour engineered an alliance with Napoleon III of France in 1858 with the object of forcing Austria out of Lombardy and Venetia. War broke out in 1859, and though France and Sardinia were victorious, Napoleon made peace without consulting Cavour, and Cavour resigned his post in 1859. He returned to his position in 1860 after the people of Parma, Modena, Romagna and Tuscany voted to join Sardinia. Lombardy was transferred to Sardinia by France, but Venetia remained in Austrian hands. Napoleon further insulted Cavour and Sardinia by demanding Nice and the homeland of the Sardinian royal family, Savoy. In 1860, Cavour annexed the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which was much poorer and agricultural than northern Italy. In March 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was pronounced, and Victor Emmanuel II became King. Only two months after his dream was realized, Cavour died of food poisoning on June 6, 1861.

The Conte di Cavour was the greatest statesman of his day, and took office twelve years before Count Otto von Bismarck was made Prime Minister of Prussia. Cavour died very young at the age of fifty. Cavour would have lived to the age of 70 with all probability had he not succumbed to food poisoning in spring 1861. This alternate history, "One Man's Meat Is Another Man's Poison," attempts to determine how the development of Italy in its early days and the face of Europe would have changed had this great statesman lived to his probable age of death.