IL DUCE BAGS - PART 1Predappio is a Fascist Paradise
 ver heard of a place called Predappio? Wow, it’s weird. We came across it by accident when travelling through central Italy on holiday last month. It’s a small, backward, rural village that really isn’t that different from any other small, backward, rural village in central Italy apart from the fact that its economy is based on being a living, breathing tribute to the inventor of fascism; their most famous son, Benito Mussolini! That’s kind of like if the place where Hitler was born (Braunau, Austria) had a water slide park in the shape of a swastika, or if London had a statue of Bomber Harris, the guy who firebombed Dresden. Oh wait, it does.
The locals in Predappio are divided into two groups. There are those who do their best to ignore the blood-soaked history of the village they live in, and those who are very happy to milk the fascist cow for all its worth, selling cute little trinkets and souvenirs such as Nazi flags, white-power wine, Hitler snow globes, or Mussolini batons with which to hit people.
We ended up spending a couple of days there, and we even convinced the locals to give us a tour of Mussolini’s private residence. We had to promise not to take pictures and all that, but luckily for you guys we have no qualms about lying to people’s faces. Especially if they are crazy, fascist assholes!
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Because the local government doesn’t want to explicitly attract fascist tourism, be it of the modern, “historical interest” type, or the old-school “skinhead” type, the only sign in the vicinity of Predappio that gives you an idea of where you’re going is this one.
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A detail of the shop window of Predappio Souvenir, the first store to say “fuck it” and try to make money off the Mussolini-nostalgia. These pins sell for 2 euros. |
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These are the billy clubs and truncheons with fascist slogans on them. When we went to pay for our Eau de Toilette Mussolini Nostalgia, the owner asked us where we came from. “Milan?” he replied. “With all the communists you have in your town you should buy one of these, not some perfume.” |
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The owners were so kind and sweet that we were almost fooled into thinking we had just stepped into a Hello Kitty store. The swastikas and SS logos snapped us back to reality. The Mussolini busts ranged from 8 to 120 euros. |
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These paintings in the background were all works by Mussolini’s son, Romano, who on top of being a talented jazz sax player, was also quite an artist, apparently. |
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These hats belonged to the Duce himself and weren’t for sale. They were part of the owner’s huge collection of Duce memorabilia. We asked him if there were any Il Duce Bags for sale but sadly there weren’t. |
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TO BE CONTINUED:
IL DUCE BAGS | 1 | 2 |
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Aug 2, 2009 wrote:
Wow, some of the comments here are pretty awful, that goes for the anti-fascists name calling as well. Quite interesting, I always wondered what his tomb would look like, would be cool to go there and steal his tomb busts :) | | Anonymous, on Apr 13, 2009 wrote:
ME NE FREGO!
Theres 2 people in the world people who r Italian and those who wish they were. DUCE! DUCE! DUCE! | | Anonymous, on Nov 17, 2008 wrote:
The right wing always lurks beneath the surface of every country, always to pop out and blame black/jew/gypsy/pole etc etc etc whenever we need a nationalist lift.
It’s just human nature, we flock to stand behind the school boy bully and point at the ’strange’ kid | | Anonymous, on Aug 26, 2008 wrote:
"Mussolini really wasn’t that bad, even in Milan you can find people in the street selling portraits of the "Duce". He is still somewhat respected by Italy’s elderly."
WHAT ?
Respected by whom ? By the elders who survived concentration camps ? By those who were deported just out of their race, political choices or religion ?
The bald guy brought Italy into WWII with his alliance with the Nazis, and since the killing of Matteotti (1924) Italy was far from being a democratic country, having - as written in history books - become a dictatorship.
The problem is not the real nostalgic or the market around M’s memorabilia.
The real problem are all the people who declare themselves fascist in 2008, those who pay a nostalgic visit every year and think it’s too bad he’s gone.
Part of them evolved into Ministers allied of Berlusconi, you know ?
M. | | |
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