For Nunziatella the period of the Second Restoration was a time of great cultural fervor, thanks to the arrival of some of the most qualified teachers of the time. Mariano d'Ayala, then first lieutenant and former student of the Nunziatella until 1828, was called in September 1837 to hold the post of instructor of ballistic and descriptive geometry. Once in the chair in place of major Niola (later instructor Francis II of the Two Sicilies) and thanks to the protection of Carlo Filangieri, Ayala strived to transfer to cadets the ideas taught in other countries Europeans. Far from being a purely theoretical exercise, the action of Ayala also expressed by building a relationship of great closeness to his students. This had a profound influence on the students of the time (which included Carlo Pisacane, Enrico Cosenz, Giuseppe Virgili and Salvatore Medina), and was the channel through which Ayala transferred to them his own ideas about the necessity of Italian unification.