What happened next, and why it mattered

Buondì.

I’m writing this yesterday, and plan to keep it super-short, as this morning we’re off to Tuscany for the weekend, and there’s plenty to do before we jump in our Fiat Punto and hit the autostrade!

On Saturday evening we have tickets (the cheapest ones) to see the Puccini opera, Turandot, at the Puccini Festival. It’s my own fault, really. Ever since we did our ‘easy reader’ ebook version of the opera, Stefi’s been on at me to go with her. A few weeks ago we saw Tosca, here in Bologna.

I watched Turandot on Youtube, back when we were publishing our ebook, but I suppose seeing it live will be an experience. The performances are on a stage next to a lake, apparently, and someone moans on the internet that the sound of wild ducks quacking rather spoilt their enjoyment of the music.

Anyway, the plan is to make a three-day weekend of it, see the sights in Tuscany, stay in a place with a pool, that sort of thing. Hopefully there’ll be nice things to eat and drink.

And so to business – if you’ve been following our FREE Summer Series of 30 articles with accompanying online audio, you’ll have seen that, on Wednesday, Mussolini’s fascists came to power, thanks to parties on the right, and to the king, who couldn’t tolerate the idea of working together with the dems, pardon, I mean with the socialists and the communists.

Turns out that the fascists were a bunch of hoodlums, who made liberal use of threats and actual violence to discourage opponents and win elections. What a surprise! Nor were they averse to lining their own pockets while in power. Never mind, though. At least they weren’t subersive lefties, hell bent on undermining God, capitalism and the Italian way.

In 1924 things came to a head when a courageous socialist parliamentarian, Giacomo Matteotti, stood up and made a speech, denouncing the fascists and their undemocratic and illegal practices.

Find out what happened next, and why it mattered, in today’s FREE article:

Episodio 18. Il fascismo in pericolo: il delitto Matteotti (1924)

The previous seventeen episodes in this series can be found on our History page, along with the ninety Summer Series articles from previous years. Scroll right down to the end to find the latest ones.

A lunedì.

P.S.

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