Back when Italy was not yet Italy, a bank owned by the Rothschilds donated large loans to the Papal States and various kings of Naples, the duchy of Parma, and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. When Italy unified in 1861, the Italian aristocracy declined, and the Rothschilds were forced to close their Naples bank. But rather than this being the end of things in Naples, the Naples branch of the Rothschild family had become closely tied to the Vatican Bank, and association which continued into the 20th century. In fact, when Carl von Rothschild met Pope Gregory XVI in 1832, he was not required to kiss the Pope’s feet.