MUSSOLINI IN THE SEWERS (Florence)
CONTENTS:
(1) THE STRANGE WORLD OF FASCIST SEWER CAPS
(2) WHO WAS GIOVANNI BERTA, BOY MARTYR FOR FASCISM?
(3) FONDERIA DELLE CURE GIOVANNI BERTA, IRONMONGER TO THE REGIME
(1) THE STRANGE WORLD OF FASCIST SEWER CAPS
A rattle-trap Vespa motorino with a busted tail-light and a highly-collectible old-style license plate: FI for Firenze (Florence).
Decades ago, the Italian government decided to follow the European Union model— swapping out localized license plates like these for a sad and anonymous national system.
A blast from the past! Guaranteed to bring a smile to any fifty-something Florentine guy who saved up to buy the same cheapo model right out of high school.
Parked on a fascio-studded sewer cap. Guaranteed to bring a frown (or more likely, a blank stare) to his father and grandfather—who spent their lives pretending that Benito Mussolini never existed.
At almost every step in the Tuscan capital, we find Mussolini tombini (sewer caps) right under our feet. Looming portals to a strange netherworld —historical, political and whatever else.
For twenty years (1922-42), the Spirit of Fascist Progress was the presiding genius of Mussolini's Italy. In most places, this meant running water and flush toilets —often for the first time.
Even in relatively advanced towns like Florence, unwieldy sewer caps in stone —not cast iron—had long been the norm.
These modern improvements brought a host of branding opportunities in their wake.
The Duce's Corporate State was relentlessly on message, bombarding the public with signs and symbols.
(2) WHO WAS GIOVANNI BERTA, BOY MARTYR FOR FASCISM?
Now a deep dive into the dark waters of Fascist Florence...
In the early evening of February 28, 1921, Giovanni Berta— nineteen year-old son of a Florentine foundry owner —was bicycling alone across a bridge over the Arno.
There had been an intense week of political skirmishes in Florence and Berta was a well-known Fascist militant.
According to the official version of the story, he encountered a vicious band of Communist agitators, who stabbed him and pitched him into the river—where he drowned.
They also stomped on his fingers as he clenched the railing of the bridge —a favorite detail, featured in the illustration above.
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Berta was hailed as a precocious martyr of the Fascist Revolution, making his sacrifice nearly two years before the March on Rome (October 1922). As soon as the Mussolini Regime consolidated power, it began dedicating streets and buildings to the memory of this boy hero—especially schools and sports facilities to inspire the rising generation of Italian youth.
(3) FONDERIA DELLE CURE GIOVANNI BERTA, IRONMONGER TO THE REGIME
His father Giuseppe Berta was no less prompt to embrace these naming opportunities, designating their family enterprise the Fonderia delle Cure Giovanni Berta.
This was a win-win for everyone involved, including the Fascist propaganda machine.
The Berta foundry was only a medium-sized operation, but it cornered the local market in politically-conscious sewer caps— giving them a uniquely patriotic spin.
Other foundries made Fascist tombini also, but in Florence Giovanni Berta prevailed.
Today, you can still cross the city from end to end, going from one mini-monument to the next.
And Italy being Italy, there is often a motorino in the shot.
Lots of ANNO VIII out there in Florence, it seems... 1930 was evidently a banner year for public works in the Tuscan Capital —with the Fonderia Giovanni Berta leading the charge.
For a true tombino obsessive (I like to think that I stopped myself on the brink), the pursuit rapidly descends into a numismatic/philatelic daze of subtle discernments —condition, origin, rarity and such.
ANNO V (1927) is the earliest issue in my virtual album, when the Fascist State first locked down its control of Italian life.
ANNO XIX (1941) is the latest in my collection and a prized rarity.
Barely two years later, the Duce would be running for his life— with manhole covers the last thing on his mind (unless he was looking for a place to hide).
The Berta family was still in the game, with the name of their operation only slightly reworked. Alas, they struggled with national and international competition in the post-Mussolini world, without the Regime's special patronage.
In the 1950s, the foundry went through several bankrupticies and restructurings —even functioning for several years as a socialist-inspired workers' cooperative (strange to relate).
The City of Florence acquired their historic premises in Le Cure in 1958, then demolished it in 1969, building a Middle School on the site.
NOTE:
In the Mussolini era, the FONDERIA DELLE CURE GIOVANNI BERTA FIRENZE also shipped sewer caps to Rome— according to local specificatons (including the Roman SPQR), with fasces but without dates.
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