It's the first day of spring...

...in Chicago and as good a time as any to walk over to Garibaldi Park on Polk Street, between Laflin and Ashland.

The plaque in front of the statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi describes him as an "Italian patriot, soldier and leading figure of the 'Risorgimento,' the 19th century movement for the liberation and unification of Italy.

"With his band of 'red shirts,' Garibaldi fought armies of the French, Austrians, Spanish, creating, for the first time, a united and independent Kingdom of Italy."

The statue was dedicated in Lincoln Park in 1934 and relocated to its current location in Little Italy fifty years later, in 1984.

On my way out of the park, I could see the dome from nearby St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church on Ashland.

Completed in 1910 in the Greek Revival style, the building was originally designed as a synagogue. In 1927, it was transformed into a Greek Orthodox Church.