Eighty years after Mussolini's execution, nostalgia for fascism persists

Benito Mussolini had two women who accompanied him to the end, but in ways as different as irreconcilable. One, Rachele Guidi, the peasant wife of iron character who followed him from the days of poverty to the summit of power and the abyss of the fall. The other, Clara Petacci, the young, fervent and devout lover who preferred to live to the end with him, despite knowing that that was practically the guarantee of her own death.Both women, with …

It would be Carla Voltolina, future wife of President Pertini, together with a Tuscan partisan to cover with a brooch the naked body of Mussolini's lover. A new version of the story around a small gesture of pity in the middle of the Mexican butchery.

Big business and Mussolini (Chapter 3) - The Fascist Revolution in Tuscany, 1919–22

The Fascist Revolution in Tuscany, 1919–22 - November 1989

What to do with the corpse of a dictator? Benito Mussolini was shot 80 years ago. His remains were first hidden, then stolen, hidden again, finally returned to the family.

By chance, the partisans found the fleeing Duce on the shore of Lake Como. The next day, in Milan, his body was hanged by the foot.

Under Italy’s far-right government, Liberation Day takes on new importance

As New Zealanders marked Anzac Day, Italians commemorated 80 years since the country was liberated from fascism. Have celebrations changed in the shadow of Italy’s first postwar far-right government? Nina Hall writes from Bologna. For Italians, April 25 is very different to New Zealand’s Anzac Day. It’s the day to commemorate the end of the second world war, and all those who died fighting for Italian democracy. On April 25, 1945, Italy was libe…