There is a museum dedicated to Benito Mussolini just outside Forlì, which you won’t find in official tourist guides. Hundreds of memorabilia are on display, such as his violin, his last uniform, the meeting table where the first government meeting of the Republic of Salò was held, and the family dining room table with the bell under which the Duce used. calling his children to the table (with the punishment of a “thump”, a slap in Romagna dialect, from his wife Rachele if they do not come immediately).
He has a desk and reading glasses that he keeps away from the cameras so as not to tarnish his masculine image. Gifts from around the world were scattered around, from a pagoda paying homage to Japanese emperor Hirohito to a precious tapestry of an Ethiopian negus, from gloves and a hat worn at Campo Imperatore to a dubious letter allegedly written by Mussolini to Padre Pio. He would thank him “for bringing him back to God, from fascist to fascist.” And we can go on for a long time.
This particular museum is not included in itineraries, it does not have brochures at the tourist information office, it cannot be found on the countless websites devoted to the exploration of a region, especially not on corporate sites, even those devoted to the strangest curiosities. Only the website of a nearby hotel mentions it coyly, and after all, with good reason: there would be around twenty thousand paying visitors each year from all over Italy and also from abroad, from Finland to the United States. The groups and all the coaches also arrive there.
The museum dedicated to Mussolini can be found largely by word of mouth, as part of a “black tour” that sees Predappio’s tomb as its epicenter. Adele Grana, wife of Lombard entrepreneur Domenico Morosini, the owner of the facility, tells visitors, “If you ask in the area, they will mislead you and send you somewhere else.” But it must be said that it is not a secret place: it is openly known to the authorities, it is on Wikipedia, it is reviewed on Google and TripAdvisor, it has its own site ‘Casa dei Ricordi’ (this is the full name of the museum where “an unforgettable historical experience” is promised). There are also several advertising signs on the road; one with an arrow pointing to the village road to get there, the other on the country road between Forli and Predappio. And finally, there’s plenty of newspaper and TV news, including a recent report from CNN.
The visit took place at Villa Carpena, Benito Mussolini’s family home, where he did not carry out any political activities but locked himself away while in Forlì to be with his wife and children and had freedom of speech. We speak the Romagna dialect and play with the children in the garden. So we visit the kitchen, the living room, the study, even the bathroom and the bedrooms of the parents and children (Maria Scicolone, Sophia Loren’s sister and Alessandra Mussolini’s mother, also slept in the same room). Mussolini’s wife, Rachele Guidi, returned to live here since 1957, when the building was returned to her after being requisitioned for war evacuees. Vittorio Mussolini continued to live here after his death in 1979, and finally, in 2001, the property was sold with the idea of building a museum resembling a chest of memories in Domenico Morosini’s grandfather’s house, which was his dream. , an entrepreneur from Lodi who came specifically to Forli.
“There are no politics and arguments here,” is the premise of the tourist visit, which lasts more than an hour between intimate and familial aspects of the Duce and more classical historical rereadings of the events of the two-decade period. the evergreen “if he made mistakes, he made them under Hitler’s pressure from ’40 to ’45”, then all combined with the equally classic “he loved Italy and never enriched himself on a personal level”, followed by the inevitable The current reference came: “Can we say this about today’s politicians?”.
The philological reconstruction of the environments and objects of the time would be guaranteed by his sons Vittorio and Romano Mussolini themselves, who, according to the guide, would over the years reconstruct all the environments as they once were. “My father kept this table here,” “the bookshelf was there,” “my mother ordered the kitchen like this,” etc. Hundreds of other objects collected by Morosini were added to the memorabilia in Mussolini’s house; among them was his 1945 uniform, purchased from the United States for twenty thousand dollars (at least that’s the guide’s description) and displayed for examination above his bed. Indeed, when the uniform first entered the Duce’s bedroom, a young man would faint and shout ‘He’s here’ in a guttural voice that was not his own, and his image would suddenly appear in the blackened parts. mirror on the dresser. Because eventually, at the end of every self-respecting visit, the ghost moment always comes. And while the guide points out this in a detached manner, he still leaves the visitor the advantage of not recognizing “it” among some opaque lines of the old mirror.
It is clear that those who come here often do so out of secret sympathy for the former host. And what he gets in return is exactly the narrative he expected, following the rule of “everything they never told you about the Duce and would never dare tell you.” So we go from the American who wants to sit at the head of the Duce’s original table to take photos to send to his friends, to the Italian in black shirts from all over the region who makes a pilgrimage to Predappio, a few miles away. far from here. .
But anyone who visits the ‘House of Memories’ and expects a clear apology for fascism will be disappointed. The visit ends as follows: “Here we go deep into history (Even if it’s in his own way, ed), fascism will never return.” If the incumbent American asks whether there is a risk of Italy becoming fascist again, the guide explains, “we answer with a smile, absolutely no.” The visit includes a 2024 calendar with ‘Duce’s Last Thoughts’ and It ends with free delivery of the scroll containing ‘The Poem of Bread’ in the adjacent shop, which is stocked with themed ‘souvenirs’.
Of course, it would now be easy to be angry at how such a collection of objects came to be – and have been open to visitors for over twenty years – and to propose it in good faith as a private museum dedicated to this art. The creator of one of the darkest pages of our history. But it is a museum that has nothing wild or scary about it and ultimately entertains the visitor who is willing to pay 15 euros for a ticket. But in the wake of the outrage, it is perhaps more useful to ask ourselves how it is possible that, almost 80 years after Mussolini’s death, there is no public institution that takes responsibility for the Mussolini anecdote and the tourist interest it aroused. with the highest scientific rigor, from the right distance and in the right context. And probably without a ghost in the mirror.
Source: Today IT
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
