This paper discusses the themes and questions raised by the issue of national identity in Italy and the concept of an Italian philosophical tradition, starting from Maurizio Martirano’s recent monograph. After summarising the work’s central arguments, the paper considers it in the context of debates concerning the origins, chronology, and political consistency of Italian national identity. In light of this, and in front of the tendency to divorce Italian philosophy from the matter of national identity, the paper argues that this legacy is part of a multi-centred historical process through which the nation has defined and portrayed itself throughout its cultural history.