Tourist planning in fascist Italy and the limits of a totalitarian culture

Contemporary European History

Volumn 6, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 1-25

  Bosworth, R J B ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0346723267     PISSN: 09607773     EISSN: 14692171     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0960777300004033     Document Type: Article

References (128)

1. For my own brief and comparative analysis of the literature, see R.J.B. Bosworth, Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima: History Writing and the Second World War 1945-1990 (London: Routledge, 1993). 118-41.
2. V. De Grazia, How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy 1922-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992);
3. cf. also her pioneering account of much of fascist society, The Culture of Consent: Mass Organization of Leisure in Fascist Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
4. See also the more narrowly focused M. Fraddosio, "The Fallen Hero: the Myth of Mussolini and Fascist Women in the Italian Social Republic (1943-5)', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 31, no. 1 (1996), 99-124.
5. J. Morris, The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan 1886-1922 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
6. J.A. Davis, 'Remapping Italy's Path to the Twentieth Century', Journal of Modern History, Vol. 66, no. 2 (1994), 291-320;
7. cf., e.g. R. Romanelli, 'Urban Patricians and "Bourgeois" Society: a Study of Wealthy Elites in Florence, 1862-1904', Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Vol. 1, no. 1 (1995), 3-21.
8. And to argue that the post-1943-ish anti-fascists had never 'really' been contaminated by the regime. For a neat demolition of some of these myths, see R. Ben-Ghiat, 'Fascism, Writing and Memory: the Realist Aesthetic in Italy, 1930-1950', Journal of Modern History, Vol. 67, no. 4 (1995), 627-65.
9. The most evident influence on Gentile is George Mosse, one of the founding editors of the Journal of Contemporary History, in his work on the cultural background of Nazi Germany. For an English-language example of Gentile's debt to Mosse, see E. Gentile, 'Fascism as a Political Religion', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 25, no. 2 (1990), 229-51.
10. E. Gentile, La via italiana al totalitarisme: il Partito e lo Stato nel regime fascista (Rome: La Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1995).
11. J.T. Schnapp, '18 BL: Fascist Mass Spectacle', Representations, Vol. 43, no. 1 (1993), 92-3.
12. For the most accessible English-language example, see E. Gentile, 'Fascism in Italian Historiography: in Search of an Individual Historical Identity', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 21, no. 2 (1986), 179-208;
13. for a more recent re-statement of this belief, see an article by a colleague of Gentile's, N. Zapponi, 'Fascism in Italian Historiography, 1986-1993: a Fading National Identity', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 29, no. 4 (1994).
14. R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy and the Wider World 1860-1960 (London: Routledge, 1996), 159-81.
15. The most serious Italian regional case study of tourism, which, unfortunately, does not continue into the Fascist era, is M. Scattarreggia, San Remo 1815-1915: turismo e trasformazione territoriale (Milan: F. Angeli, 1986).
16. B. Stringher, Gli scambii con l'estero e la politica commerciale italiana dal 1860 al 1910 (Rome: Tipografia della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1912), 122-5.
17. For brief Italian reviews of these matters, see A. Treves, 'Alle origini dell'intervento pubblico per il turismo in Italia', in L'Italia che cambia: il contributo della geografia, Vol. 2 (Catania, 1989), 155-66
18. and idem, 'Anni di guerra, anni di svolta. Il turismo italiano durante la prima guerra mondiale', in G. Botta, ed., Studi geografici sul paesaggio (Milan: Cisalpino-Goliardico, 1989), 249-99.
19. Here, cf. The convincing efforts of Australian historian, Richard White, to depict the response, at least of Australian soldiers at the war fronts, as itself a variety of tourist experience. His ideas might fruitfully be applied to other nations' war experiences. See, e.g. R. White, 'Australians' First Impressions of England', Australian Cultural History, Vol. 5, no. 1 (1986), 44-59;
20. 'Motives for Joining Up: Self-sacrifice, Self-interest and Social Class 1914-18', Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Vol. 9, no. 1 (1986), 3-16.
21. Among Nitti's key advisers were Meucci Ruini, the Under-Secretary for Industry, Trade and Work, and Ruini's Chef de Cabinet, Angelo Mariotti. Ruini would be a notable critic of Mussolini's regime during the Matteotti crisis and remain unreconciled with the regime, opposing, for example, the creation of the Corporate State. After 1943 he would re-emerge on the political scene. See, e.g. R. De Felice, Mussolini il fascista: 1. La conquista del potere 1921-1925 (Turin: Einaudi, 1966), 398, 682;
22. A. Aquarone, l'organizzazione dello stato totalitario (Turin: Einaudi, 1965), 124;
23. and, in English, C.F. Delzell, Mussolini's Enemies: the Italian Anti-Fascist Resistance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 18; 218-19; 389-91;
24. for Ruini's own enthusiasms, see M. Ruini, La montagna in guerra e dopo la guerra (Rome, 1919).
25. For Mariotti, a splendid embodiment of continuity in Italian history, see Bosworth, Italy and the Wider World 1860-1960, 172-3.
26. My reference here is to Arthur Marwick's useful concept of the 'test of war', his idea that participation in a modern war will uncover the bases of a modern state and show up its relationship with society. See, e.g. A. Marwick, War and Social Change in the Twentieth Century: a Comparative Study of Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States [but not Italy] (London: Macmillan, 1974).
27. M. Bonatti, Nascita e sviluppo di una città termale: Salsomaggiore (Parma: Quaderni Fidentini, 1981), 35-8.
28. Rebucci was a fervent advocate of state control of the local spa industry. See, e.g. A.M. Rebucci, 'Per l'industria termale italiana', Nuova Antologia, f. 1205 (1 June 1922), 253-6.
29. A.M. Rebucci, 'Visioni di economia turistica', Riviste delle stazioni di cura, soggiomo e turismo. Vol. 17, no. 6-7 (1941).
30. G. Mariotti, Il turismo fra le due guerre (Rome: Edizioni Mercurio, [1941]);
31. see also his La Svizzera turistica (Genoa: Camera di Commercio, Industria e Agricoltura, 1948).
32. Mariotti, Il turismo, 219-20.
33. For a fundamental account of this era of Mussolini's 'going to the people' in order, at last, to construct the 'new Fascist man and woman', see R. De Felice, Mussolini il duce: lo stato totalitario 1936-1940 (Turin: Einaudi, 1981).
34. It was hardly surprising, then, that Mariotti would, only four years later, be the author of one of the first guides to post-fascist Italy, although the flavour of his English would be somewhat cloying as he sought to forget or obscure the immediate past: 'Running out into the middle of the Mediterrranean like a flower-bedecked bridge between the Alps and Africa, this land has all the charms that may be found in a country. When we find that some of its sons do not come up to our expectations, they may jar or even arouse our scorn, we need only to conjure up Italy in all her beauty, understand her meaning, remember her everlasting value, to forgive and be reconciled again. ... [In Italy] one cannot lift a clod of earth without finding some trace of its past life. One cannot walk a yard without calling up the name of some world-famous Italian genius.' At present, it was true, Italy's condition was parlous, but this was 'not the first time that men have devastated and trampled underfoot what was, and always will be, dear to the gods'. Revival would come, especially through tourism. Before the war, 'the organisation for the reception of tourists had reached a high degree of perfection even in the smaller centres, and will again reach the same level as soon as the damage caused by the war can be repaired'. In its tourist policy, as in everything else, fascism had made some calamitous mistakes, but the fascist regime had now fallen and Italy and tourism, in necessary and fruitful marriage, were certain to revive. See G. Mariotti, Here's Italy (Florence: Vallecchi, 1945), 8-10, 206-9.
35. See, e.g. F.W. Ogilivie, The Tourist Movement: an Economic Study (London: Staples Press [1933]). which gives the total number of visitors that year as 1,340,000.
36. 'Ch', 'Verità sul turismo', Rivista delle stazioni di cura, soggiomo e turismo, Vol. 17, no. 6-7 (1941).
37. Archivio Centrale dello Stato (thereafter ACS), Presidenza del Consiglio, Gabinetto (thereafter PCM) 1926 3/15/4339, which has copy of ENIT, Relazione sull'attività svolta nell'anno 1925 (Rome, 1926). The organisation claimed a profit of 1.8 million lira, though it also had received state subsidies of 1.9 million, 1.5 million from the Ministry of National Economy and 400,000 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
38. Sommariva to Suardo, 20 Apr. 1927. ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/7408.
39. For the inauguration, see Il Popolo d'Italia, 19 March 1927.
40. A brief English-language biography of Gray can be found in P.V. Cannistraro, ed., Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy (Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1982), 260-1. The Direttore Generale or manager of CIT was the career-bureaucrat, Michele Oro, transferred from ENIT, in which he had built up a fine reputation for efficiency and moderation.
41. For some hints about his reluctance at the move, see 'Redattore', 'Le grandi figure del turismo: Michele Oro', Ospitalità italiana: rivista alberghiera e turistica, Vol. 2, no. 3 (1927), 40. Oro was said to have remarked that the order for his transfer had come from above and, in those circumstances, 'we accept the fait accompli and look to the future'. His presence at CIT is of course a sign that the conflict with ENIT was not simply one between 'real' fascists and fiancheggiatori.
42. L. Poreta, 'Che cos'è la CIT?', Ospitalità italiano, Vol. 2, no. 3 (1927), 30-1.
43. For an official history, see G. Vota, ed., I sessant'anni del Touring Club Italiano 1894-1954 (Milan: TCI, 1954).
44. Gray minute of meeting with Mussolini, ACS PCM 1928-1930, 3.2.1/7408, 21 Nov. 1927.
45. Gray to Mussolini; Ibid., 21 Nov., 22 Dec. 1927;
46. Porretta, 'Che cos'è la CIT?', 30-1.
47. E.M. Gray, Il Belgio sotto la spada tedesca (Florence: Libreria internazionale, [1915]), 72.
48. E.M. Gray, L'invasione tedesca in Italia (Florence: Bemporad, [1915]), 89, 244-8. Gray typically assumed that Swiss tourists, hoteliers and waiters were all Germans in disguise.
49. In 1911-12 Gray had also been a propagandist of the Nationalist cause in the Libyan war. Italy's victory, he stated, in rhetoric typical of the time, was owed to the nation's 'gesture of audacious madness', its 'Garibaldinian impatience'. See, e.g. E.M. Gray, La bella guerra (Florence: Bemporad, 1912), 3, 9.
50. E.M. Gray, Venezia in armi (Milan: Treves, 1917), 61, 70.
51. See, e.g. Luigi Federzoni, 1927: diario di un ministro del fascismo, ed. A. Macchi (Florence: Passigli, 1993).
52. E.M. Gray, Crescendo di certezze (Rome: Casa Editrice Pinciana, 1930), 118-19.
53. Idem, Dopo venti anni: il fascismo e l'Europa (Rome: PNF, 1943), 27.
54. See, e.g. E.M. Gray, Chi è Colonello Poletti? (n.p., 1944).
55. In his First World War attacks on the 'cosmopolitanism' of such Giolittian bankers as Otto Joel and others of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, there had been more than a hint of anti-Semitism. For further examples of his public speaking, see E.M. Gray's works, I problemi dell'italianità nel mondo (Rome: Palazzo di Firenze, 1932);
56. Credenti nella patria (Milan: Mondadori, 1935);
57. L'Italia ha sempre ragione (Milan: Mondadori, 1938);
58. Noi e Tunisi. Come costruimmo la Tunisia (Milan: Mondadori, 1939);
59. La loro civiltà (Turin: Edizioni della Gazzetta del Popolo, 1941);
60. Ramazza: cronache dette e non dette (Milan: Mondadori, 1942);
61. Il filo di Arianna (Milan: Rizzoli, 1942).
62. In 1931 he had also edited an edition of the patriotic orations of the Duke of Aosta, E.M. Gray, ed., Il Duca d'Aosta: cittadino della riscossa Italica (Milan: Ente Autonomo Stampa, 1931).
63. 'b.i.m.', 'L'industria turistica in Italia', L'Economia nazionale, Vol. 19, no. 9 (1927), 90.
64. 'c.o.s.', 'I problemi del turismo: l'attività del CIT e la propaganda turistica all'estero', L'Economia nazionale, Vol. 19, no. 8 (1927), 44-5;
65. cf. Il Popolo d'Italia, 15 July 1927.
66. 'Caesar', 'I problemi del turismo', L'Economia nazionale, Vol. 20, no. 1 (1928), 158-9.
67. E.M. Gray, Il turismo aereo: relazione al IV congresso internazionale di navigazione aerea (CIT, Rome, 1927).
68. 'Caesar', 'I problemi del turismo', L'Economia nazionale, Vol. 20, no. 9 (1928), 199-200.
69. R. De Felice, Mussolini il duce: I Gli anni del consenso 1929-1936 (Turin: Einaudi, 1974), 175. The fullest narration of the creation of the fascist state is still Aquarone, L'organizzazione.
70. Belluzzo to Mussolini, ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/7408, 5 Jan. 1928.
71. Aquarone, L'organizzazione, 155.
72. For Rava, see R.J.B. Bosworth, Italy, the Least of the Great Powers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 42, 51, 60.
73. Martelli to Mussolini, ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/950, 11 Feb. 1929.
74. Il Popolo d'Italia, 6 June, 12 June 1929.
75. earlier in the year Gray had had to ward off radical attacks on the whole industry. Futurists, it was then noted, had long decried the national reliance on tourism. Il Popolo d'Italia, 12 Jan. 1929. For Maioni's resignation, see ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/8501, 30 Sept 1929. Maioni complained that ENIT was financially embarrassed in its accounts both with the Banca nazionale del lavoro and the Banca commerciale.
76. ACS Segretaria particolare del Duce, carteggio riservato (hereafter SPDCR), 95.1, 21 July 1928, secret file on Suvich, noting how his departure from government had 'disoriented a little everyone' in Trieste. Suvich, it was thus plain, was a politican with a local power base not to be gainsaid.
77. For a brief biography of Suvich, see Cannistraro, Dictionary, 522-3.
78. A volume of memoirs of his diplomatic career has been published. F. Suvich, Memorie 1932-1936, ed. G. Bianchi, (Milan: Rizzoli, 1984), and a few of his private papers are preserved at the ACS. Gray, in the First World War, had vituperatively attacked Volpi as an agent of Giolittian (and German) corruption. When, in July 1928, Volpi retired as Minister of Finance, Gray wrote to express his respect and his pleasure that past 'rancour' had been transmuted into 'love'. It may be doubted if Volpi as easily saw himself as a friend of Gray. See ACS, Volpi papers, 2/20/3. Others, with a less tangled past relationship with Volpi, who now sent salutations, included A.M. Rebucci, B. Nogara and J.P. Morgan.
79. G. Girani, 'La battaglia del turismo', Ospitalità italiana, Vol. 4, no. 8 (1929), 77-8.
80. Suvich memorandum, 10 Nov. 1929, ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/8501.
81. Bonardi had been Under-Secretary of War in Mussolini's first government from 1922 to July 1924. He officially joined the Fascist Party in 1923.
82. V. Fresco to Suvich, Feb. 1930, ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/950.
83. Il Popolo d'Italia, 11 May 1930; cf. 9 Feb, 18 March, 6 Apr. on ENIT.
84. Suvich to Mussolini, 16 Jan. 1931, ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/8501.
85. Suvich had been exercised about this matter for more than a decade. See, e.g. Suvich memorandum, 26 May 1924, ACS SPDCR, 95.1 complaining about French superiority, Italian bureaucratism and the lack of a clear decision-making process for such tourism in Italy, given the number of competing agencies.
86. Suvich to Mussolini, 16 Jan. 1931, ACS PCM 1928-1930 3.2.1/8501; for the problem of overzealous border guards, see also Suvich to Bocchini, 25 Sept 1930.
87. Complaints continued. Among those harassed, at least by her own account, was Leni Riefenstahl. Riefenstahl to Mussolini, 19 Aug. 1931, PCM 1931-33 9.3.2216.
88. Later that year, Police Chief Bocchini was again saying that he would see what he could do, but not at the expense 'of leaving undisturbed elements pernicious to the security of the state'. Bocchini to Mussolini, 27 Dec. 1931, PCM 1931-33 3.2.1/3804.
89. Memorandum (n.d.), ACS PCM 1934-1936 3.2.1/950.
90. See, e.g. A.R. Fiorentino, La corporazione del turismo (Rome: Grafia, 1932), 5, 19, 22. Fiorentino was one who had not forgotten ENIT's doubtful Liberal origins.
91. See 14. Cf. also A. Castelli and A. Fiorentino, Manuale dell' Albergatore (Rome: Tipografia F. Centenari, 1934), setting out the corporatist rules in full.
92. Il Popolo d'Italia, 24 Mar. 1931.
93. Fassini to C. Ciano, 30 July 1931, ACS PCM 1934-36 3.2.1/950.
94. For an English-language introduction, see M. Stone, 'Staging Fascism: The Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution', Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 2, no. 2 (1993), 215-43, which also contains some examples of the lingering possibilities for 'corruption', even in a Fascist tourist industry.
95. A. Mariotti, Corso di economia turistica (Rome: De Agostini, 1933), 243.
96. For further detail on the tourist statistics of the 1930s, see G. Carone, Il turismo nell'economia internazionale (Milan: Giuffrè, 1959).
97. Fassini to Rossoni, 21 Jan. 1933. ACS PCM 1934-36 3.2.1/950.
98. Anon. to Mussolini, 24 June 1933, ACS PCM 1931-33 3.2.1/11356.
99. Fassini to Rossoni, 31 July, 29 Aug. 1933, ACS PCM 1934-36 3.2.1/950.
100. Fassini note, 11 Dec. 1933, ACS PCM 1931-33 3.2.1/8539; C. Ciano to Mussolini, 12 Dec. 1933. A few months later, Mussolini, forgetful of such arrangements, was urging that it would be best if both foreigners coming into Italy and Italians going abroad used only Italian agencies. 8 May 1934, PCM 1934-36 3.2.1/950.
101. Il Popolo d'Italia, 27 May 1934.
102. V.E. Imperatore, 'Realizzazioni di politica turistica', L'Economia nazionale. Vol. 25, no. 11 (1933). 29-32;
103. G. Gajto, 'La fiera del Levante e il turismo', Turismo d'Italia, Vol. 8, no. 4 (1934).
104. Mariotti's position as a manager of ENIT was now suppressed to his at least later regret. He would also eventually lose his fascist party ticket (tessera) after quarrelling with Oreste Bonomi who had become Direttore Generale per il Turismo. See A. Mariotti, Raccolta di studi sul turismo (Rome: Arti Grafiche Scalia Editrice), 447, 469.
105. Fassini would soon find other fields to conquer. In 1936 it was announced that he was to head the Compagnia Immobiliare Alberghi Africa Orientale and Società Gestioni Alberghi Africa Orientale whose patriotic and imperial task was to be sweetened with a fifteen-year monopoly. See V. Statera, 'Le grandi realizzazioni del regime nell'Africa Orientale Italiana: l'attrezzatura alberghiera e l'opera della C.I.A.A.O.', Gli annali dell' Africa Italiana, Vol. 4 (1941), 1, 150-5.
106. Once again, though, ambiguities are easy to locate and the difference between 'real' fascists and fellow-travellers grows complex. The name change having been agreed, the now CTI officials asked Mussolini what policy they should pursue. 'Carry on as you have always done,' he was alleged to have replied. Vota, Touring Club, 300-1. As for the TCI/CTI's enemies, one was Giotto Dainelli, the distinguished geographer who would eventually replace the assassinated Giovanni Gentile as head of the Fascist Academy. Dainelli thought the Touring inexpert and slow as map-makers, a strange charge given the apparent quality of the Club's work in this field. Dainelli memorandum, 25 June 1938, ACS Segretaria particolare del Duce, carteggio ordinario 1922-1943, 1046/509170.
107. A. Mariotti, Lezioni di economia turistica per gli studenti della Facoltà di economia e commercio (anno accademico 1940-41), (Rome: Società Editrice Nuovissima, 1941), 20.
108. Ospitalità italiana, Vol. 15, no. 4 (1940).
109. G. M., 'La costituzione della Camerata turistica italiana', Turismo d'Italia, Vol. 16, no. 7 (1941).
110. Il Popolo d'Italia, 24, 26 Jan. 1936.
111. F. Guarneri, Battaglie economiche fra le due guerre, ed. L. Zani (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1988), 504.
112. R. De Felice, Mussolini l'alleato. I: L'Italia in guerra 1940-1943 (Turin: Einaudi, 1990), 770-1.
113. Ministry of Popular Culture to Ministry of Finance, 21 Sept. 1940;
114. Ministry of Finance to Ministry of Popular Culture, 10 Nov. 1942;
115. Ministry of Popular Culture to Ministry of Finance, 7 Dec. 1942, ACS PCM 1940-3 3.2.1/2846/8.
116. For a rather naive narration of this history, see A. Trova, 'Alle origine dell'Ente Nazionale Turistiche e Alberghiere (1939-1941)', Il Risorgimento, Vol. 45, no. 2 (1993), 265-77. This whole issue is devoted to the history of tourism in Italy.
117. Probo Magrini (Direttore Generale per ill Turismo) memorandum, 5 Oct. 1939;
118. ACS Atti e documenti dell'Ente Nazionale Industrie ed Alberghiere (ENITEA) 556/19; memorandum, 'Dati informativi sull'ENITEA, (n.d.), ENITEA 556/2.
119. For a history, see V. Castronovo, Storia di una banca: la Banca Nazionale del Lavoro e lo sviluppo economico italiano 1913-1983 (Turin: Einaudi, 1983).
120. Mattioli to Magrini, 28 Nov. 1939, ENITEA 556/19. As for the Romagnole reference, a reader is tempted to ask whether Mattioli, when he was podestà of Rimini, stared out to sea with the young Federico Fellini as the Rex went by, its lights blazing.
121. Mattioli to Ministry of Popular Culture, 16 Jan. 1940, ENITEA 556/2.
122. Minutes of meeting, 23 April 1941;
123. Ministry of Finance meeting with Mattioli, 12 May 1941; minutes, 26 June 1941;
124. Toffano to Pavolini, 4 March 1942; Toffano to Pavolini, 3 June 1942, ENITEA 556/19.
125. Direzione Generale per il Turismo to Ministry of Popular Culture, 23 April 1943, ibid.;
126. Toffano to Ministry of Finance, 22 Nov. 1943;
127. President of Council memorandum, 12 June 1956, 556/1; R. Schmid report, 30 Sept. 1956. As these last dates demonstrate, more than a decade after the war the Republican authorities had still not brought themselves to wind up ENITEA.
128. For one droll example, see the account of the Rotary conference being held in Venice just as the Ethiopian crisis reached its height Rotary International, Terza conferenza regionale Europa-Africa-Asia Minore Venezia settembre 1935 (Venice: Stamperia Zanetti, 1936).