The links between Napoleon and Italy are too often reduced to its dazzling campaigns of 1796 and 1800. This love story, composed of moments of happiness but also resentment, continued well beyond Marengo. The story of Napoleon and Italy from 1805 to 1815 is primarily that of a relentless thought; there was not a single day without two, three or four letters by mail or telegraph, to Milan, Rome and Naples. This permanence in imperial thought, illustrated the desire to make Italy a model "French" state.
