SKATING OVER HISTORY IN ROME'S MUSSOLINI FORUM
A Row of Fasces...
With their illusory message of Strength, Unity and ultimately, World Domination.
FOR MORE FASCES, SEE:
ANNO FASCISTA = FASCIST YEAR: Florence’s Mussolini-era sewer caps
FROM SEGESTA TO CALATAFIMI: Mussolini Rewrites History
Meanwhile, it's another sunny afternoon in the Eternal City.
Benito Mussolini brought the Foro Italico into being. It is still the principal sports complex in Rome —and an awesome place to hang out.
FOR MORE ABOUT THE "MUSSOLINI FORUM", SEE:
HEALTHY FASCIST MIND, HEALTHY FASCIST BODY: Mussolini’s Foro Italico in Rome
FOR MORE ABOUT FASCIST CULTURAL (AND PARTICULARLY ARCHITECTURAL) PROPAGANDA, SEE:
E.42: Mussolini's Fascist Theme Park on the Outskirts of Rome
%2520resized.webp)
DUCE DUCE DUCE...
.webp)
"DUCE LA NOSTRA GIOVINEZZA A VOI DEDICHIAMO!"
(Duce, we dedicate our youth to you!)
But DUCI come and go— just like the rest of us.
And in Rome , "Emperor", "Pope" or "Dictator for a Day" has been the favorite sport for thousands of years.
%2520resized.webp)
Still, the Duce himself had a good Roman answer to that.
Or anything else that got in his face.
%2520-%2520edit%25203.webp)
MENEFREGO!
Literally, "I rub it off" or "it doesn't rub me!"
I don't give a damn, in parole povere ("poor or "plain words").
%2520-%2520Copy%2520001%2520resized.webp)
Also: A NOI! (To Us!) A celebratory Fascist motto.
%2520-%2520Copy%2520001%2520detail.webp)
Also: VV MUSSOLINI! (Viva Mussolini!)
%2520-%2520edit%252002.webp)
But meanwhile...amidst the detritus of history...
...comes the cosmic pile-up of stuff and more stuff.
Not to mention the wonders of Photoshop.
MENEFREGO in contemporary guise?
So, choose your history and get in line.
But rest assured...
No one you know will be around to have the last laugh!
Related posts
HEALTHY FASCIST MIND, HEALTHY FASCIST BODY: Mussolini’s Foro Italico in Rome
Mussolini enshrined this ideal in his Foro Italico (Italic Forum) in Rome, popularly known as the "Mussolini Forum".
Especially in the adjoining Stadio dei Marmi (Stadium of the Marble Statues), with its onslaught of colossal male nudes.
But then the years pass and present-day Romans move in, doing what present-day Romans do...
ANNO FASCISTA = FASCIST YEAR: Florence’s Mussolini-era sewer caps
Benito Mussolini had a rare knack for signs and symbols. Throughout Italy, they still follow us wherever we go.
What about Florence's ubiquitous "Anno Fascista = Fascist Year" sewer caps?
Thereby hangs many a tale...
E.42: Mussolini's Fascist Theme Park on the Outskirts of Rome
What if the Duce threw a World's Fair and no one came?
That is basically the story of the E.U.R. (Esposizione Universale Roma 1942)—one of the Eternal City's strangest and most intriguing districts.
WHO CAME FIRST? Jews, Etruscans, Someone Else...
Why are the Etruscans so supremely "mysterious"? In the popular imagination, that is always the first word that comes to mind...
By way of Giorgio Bassani's 1957 novel, The Garden of the Finzi-Contini, we search for ancient clues in the Etruscan Necropolis of Cerveteri.
Who are these Etruscans anyway—real or imagined?
What secrets do they share with the author's own more recent dead —Holocaust victims from Jewish Ferrara?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.