Gioacchino (Spanish: Joaquin) of the Álvarez dynasty was born in 1733. He was the grandson of king Francesco II and the cousin of Francesco III of Italy, whom he succeeded in 1770 (there were rumors that his predecessor was killed because of taking Nouvelle France). At this time, the Italian Royal Family had shrunk "to a couple of lamenting old women", as the British ambassador wrote. There were constant talks about his affairs with the younger men of the court, but nothing could ever be proven - either he knew how to cover his tracks, or there weren't really any affairs (less probable). Only one thing was sure - even at the age of 37, he was still unmarried, despite of the pressure from his aunt, the queen, and would stay so for his life.
As one of his first deeds, Gioacchino sent troops to Atlantis in 1771 and attacked Caroline, south of Italia Nuova, which was conquered and added to Italia Nuova until 1773. 1782, Louisiane was conquered by Italy, which now ruled all the former French colonies. In 1793, the East of OTL Hispaniola was occupied by Italy. 1798-1800, the Conquest of Algeria took place, with silent support by the French republic. 1804, Italy conquered Cuba, and 1812, Gioacchino had Florida conquered by his general and later successor Alessandro Napoleoni, now uniting all of OTL Old South. 1818-20, he conquered Egypt too.
In Europe, he decided to stay out of the French Republican Wars, which earned him a lot of criticism from the other monarchs.
In 1776, the king proved his cunning in diplomacy, when he made a contract with duke Filiberto III of Savoy. In the First French Republican War, all his heirs had been killed or captured (the last heir would actually die in 1781), and the original Savoy, the homeland of the dukes, was under the French yoke. Those circumstances meant it was no wonder that the last duke had become depressed. So king Gioacchino would visit or invite him from time to time, ostensibly to cheer him up in his loneliness, or to gloom about their common fate of being heirless, and constantly talking about his fellow countrymen who wouldn't let him make war against the French aggressors. Step by step, he would earn the trust of Filiberto, and this again would lead to harmonization of the two countries... at first, they made an "everlasting pact of peace and understanding", later, the shocked Turinese would see Italian soldiers standing guard (and talking in ununderstandable accents!) on their places, and in 1779, the two states were united - the last internal division on the Italian peninsula had fallen.
During his reign, king Gioacchino would also reform the Italian administration. Even in the century after the unification of Florence and Sicily, the old bureaucracies from both states would work in coexistence; but in the work of decades, the king unified the administration, also removing the special treatment of Venice and Savoy. The officials would try to thwart his reforms, but the king proved to be better in intrigues than they were, relocating the resistors to the newly conquered places, like Algeria, Caroline and Louisiane.
He also prepared the Italian / New Roman colonial politic in India, making several trading treaties with South Asian nations during 1776-95.
The king died in 1823, after being bound to his bed for decades. His successor Alessandro would form Italy into the new empire of New Rome.