Francesco Cucchi was born in Bergamo on December 17, 1834.

He volunteered for the Alpine Hunters and, during the Expedition of the Thousand, was wounded in Palermo.

In 1864, he was secretly sent by Garibaldi to Veneto and the Balkan Peninsula to lay the groundwork for a large-scale insurrection against Austria.

He then served for 27 years as a member of Parliament, always fighting for the radical party. He died in Rome on October 2, 1913.

Bergamo dedicated a bust to him, a work by the Milanese sculptor Attilio Prandoni, who created it using green marble for the base and white marble for the sculpture. It was inaugurated on May 30, 1920.