1. The concept of nation state is historically very young, few centuries at best in it's modern concept and that's when most modern nation states formed, the very last centuries. That's true anywhere from Asia to the balcans to the Americas and Africa.
2. Italy has been seen by Italian populations as one entity from millennia, essentially since the Roman empire when all the Italian tribes wanted to be elevated to the same status of citizenship as romans. And there's an overabundance of historical proofs of it, you're gonna find for centuries and centuries of Italian literature and diplomacy. Every single major writer in Italian history since middle ages has written openly about Italia, Dante Alighieri dedicated an entire chant in the 13th century to the woes of the Italian people "Ahi serva Italia".
3. You are absolutely right in stating that the major promoters of Italian unifications have been the elites, but that's common to most such historical events.
2. Italy has been seen by Italian populations as one entity from millennia, essentially since the Roman empire when all the Italian tribes wanted to be elevated to the same status of citizenship as romans. And there's an overabundance of historical proofs of it, you're gonna find for centuries and centuries of Italian literature and diplomacy. Every single major writer in Italian history since middle ages has written openly about Italia, Dante Alighieri dedicated an entire chant in the 13th century to the woes of the Italian people "Ahi serva Italia".
3. You are absolutely right in stating that the major promoters of Italian unifications have been the elites, but that's common to most such historical events.