BOLZANO, Italy — This picturesque town in the foothills of the Tyrolean Alps became Italian by a twist of history, when a pact signed after the upheaval of World War I handed the territory from Austria to Italy. With its German-speaking majority and reticent elegance, it still feels closer to Vienna than to Rome.

So it came as little surprise when the president of the autonomous province of Bolzano said he would not join in the nationwide festivities planned this week celebrating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. “We were taken away from Austria against our will,” Luis Durnwalder, the president, said in an interview in nearby Trento. “I respect those people who want to celebrate, but I see no reason to celebrate.”

But Mr. Durnwalder, who helped Bolzano negotiate its autonomy from Rome and its hefty state subsidies, is not the only skeptic. Umberto Bossi, the leader of the Northern League, the most powerful party in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right coalition, called the celebrations “useless, and a bit rhetorical,” and some of his party members have refused to stand for the national anthem. The leading Italian industrialists’ organization said it would be foolish to lose a workday to a national holiday amid the economic crisis.

Beyond the political theater, the polemics reflect a profound reality: as Italy prepares to celebrate its 150th anniversary it is more fractured than ever before — politically, geographically and economically. The country has always been more a patchwork of regions with strong local identities rather than a strong nation-state. And the celebrations have only highlighted the seams.