Rome

by Matthew Kneale

  On Rome’s Ghetto see Attilio Milano, Il Ghetto di Roma (1964). On the possibility that the Ghetto was cleaner than visitors realized, see Kenneth Stow, ‘Was the Ghetto Cleaner …’ in Mark Bradley and Kenneth Stow (eds), Rome, Pollution and Propriety: Dirt, Disease and Hygiene in the Eternal City from Antiquity to Modernity (2012). On Roman Jewish dialect see Crescenzo del Monte, ‘Glossario del dialetto giudaico-romanesco’ in the same author’s Sonetti Postumi Giudaico-Romaneschi e Romaneschi (1955). On grand tourists’ mistaken ideas as to the cause of malaria, see Richard Wrigley, ‘Pathological Topographies and Cultural Itineraries: Mapping “mal’aria” in eighteenth and nineteenth century Rome’ in Richard Wrigley and George Revill (eds), Pathologies of Travel (2000). On the Ghetto and malaria see Robert Sallares, Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy (2002). On the papal procession on the feast of Corpus Domini see William Wetmore Story, Roba di Roma (1863).

  III

  One of the fullest accounts of the Roman Republic’s struggle to survive remains George Macaulay Trevelyan, Garibaldi’s Defence of the Roman Republic (1907), from which my account draws many details. For a more critical examination of Garibaldi’s role see Riall. For an account, admittedly partisan against Pius IX, of events after the fall of Rome, see Luigi Carlo Farini, The Roman State, Volume 4, Book VII, trans. W. E. Gladstone (1851). Farini details the attack by the papal police and French troops on the Ghetto. Also see Bolton King, A History of Italian Unity, being a Political History of Italy from 1814 to 1854, Volume I (1899). See also Denis Mack Smith, Mazzini; Margaret Fuller, These Sad but Glorious Days: Dispatches from Europe 1846–50, ed. Larry J. Reynolds and Susan Belasco Smith (1991); Robert N. Hudspeth (ed.), Letters of Margaret Fuller Vol. IV (1984) and Friedrich Althaus (ed.), The Roman Journals of Ferdinand Gregorovius 1852–74, trans. Mrs Gustavus W. Hamilton (1907). The figure of 20,000 people fleeing Rome is from Chadwick. The attempt to burn down the Quirinal Palace on the day Pius returned is from Mary Francis Cusack, The Life and Times of Pope Pius IX (1878). On Rome’s gasworks on Circo Massimo see Maguire and Bosworth.

  On the assassination attempts against Louis Napoleon see Bresler. On Garibaldi’s visit to England see Derek Beales, ‘Garibaldi in England: The Politics of Italian Enthusiasm’ in John A. Davis and Paul Ginsborg (eds), Society and Politics in the Age of the Risorgimento: Essays in Honour of Denis Mack Smith (1991). For the chants of ‘Viva Verdi’ see Story. For Romans’ boycotts and Pius sending his executioner to scare his parishioners see The Roman Journals of Ferdinand Gregorovius (above), 8 March 1860. On papal repression see Odo Russell in Blakiston. On the doctrine of papal infallibility see Chadwick and Bosworth. On Pius’ last months as ruler of Rome, on the capture of the city by Italian forces and the journey of Pius’ corpse to San Lorenzo see Bosworth and David L. Kertzer, Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes, the Kings, and Garibaldi’s Rebels in the Struggle to Rule Modern Italy (2004).

  Chapter Seven

  I

  For Mussolini’s arrest by the king see Anthony Majanlahti and Amadeo Osti Guerazzi, Roma occupata 1943–44, Itinerari, storia, immagini (2010) and Nello Ajello, La caduta, ‘Il commando a Badoglio è fatta’ a Villa Savoia il Re si libera del duce, 25 July 2013.

  The account of the Fascist Grand Council Meeting is from M. de Wyss, Rome Under the Terror (1945). De Wyss is an elusive source and a little should be said about what is known – or rather not known – about her. We lack even her first name. Her publisher, Robert Hale Ltd, London, says only that she is ‘… a lady who was in Rome continuously during the last stages [of the war] and who had reliable sources of extraordinary information’. The detail and accuracy of her account and the rapidity with which the book appeared – a year after Rome’s occupation ended – suggest it is reliable, though her name is probably a pseudonym (she evidently did not want her identity known). From the text it is clear she had already experienced Nazi occupation in another location prior to her living in Rome. The speed and thoroughness of her investigations, her at times eccentric English and her regular complimentary references to the Swiss diplomatic authorities all suggest she was a Swiss journalist covering the war in Italy.

  For the life of Vittorio Emanuele III see Denis Mack Smith, Italy and its Monarchy (1992). For the US bombing raid on 19 September 1943 and Roman celebrations after Mussolini’s fall see Robert Katz, Fatal Silence: The Pope, the Resistance and the German Occupation of Rome (2003) and de Wyss. On the career of Badoglio see Giovanni de Luna, Badoglio: Un militare al potere (1974). On Rome’s lack of preparedness for air attacks see R. J. B. Bosworth, Whispering Cities: Modern Rome and its Histories (2011).

  II

  For all aspects of Liberal Rome, including its building booms, its new facilities and its many constructions to promote itself and challenge the popes, see Bosworth, Whispering Cities. For further details on Liberal Rome including ineffectual development plans and also destruction that was avoided see Spiro Kostof, The Third Rome, 1870–1950, Traffic and Glory (1973). For Lanciani’s work in Rome, and especially for Liberals’ remaking of Rome for propaganda purposes see Bosworth. For the presence of non-Catholic churches inside Rome’s walls see Kostof and Bosworth. The dissident intellectual who described the Vittoriano as a ‘Vespasiano di Lusso’, was Giovanni Papini (see Bosworth). Also see Bosworth for Jewish politicians and generals and for Garibaldi’s proposal of a Tiber canal.

  For Mussolini’s life see R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini (2002) and Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini (1981). On Romans’ initial indifference towards Fascism see Bosworth, Whispering Cities. On all aspects of Fascist demolitions and rebuilding of Rome see Borden W. Painter, Jr, Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City (2005); Spiro Kostof; Bosworth, Whispering Cities and also Joshua Arthurs, Excavating Modernity: The Roman Past in Fascist Italy (2012). For Mussolini’s loathing of foreign tourists’ love of the picturesque see Arthurs. For the cost of Mussolini’s demolitions in terms of homes lost see Painter. For André Gide’s observations see Emilio Gentile, In Italia ai Tempi di Mussolini: Viaggio in compagnia di osservatori stranieri (2014). For Cardinal Pallotta’s criticisms of the idea of a broad road leading to St Peter’s see Richard Krautheimer, The Rome of Alexander VII, 1655–1667 (1985). On Rome’s Fascist constructions see Painter.

  On the GIL Fascist youth movement see Edward R. Tannenbaum, The Fascist Experience: Italian Society and Culture 1922–45 (1972). On Foro Mussolini see Painter and Bosworth, Whispering Cities. On the Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista see Bosworth, Painter and Roland G. Andrew, Through Fascist Italy, An English Hiker’s Pilgrimage (1935). On Fascism’s early hostility towards tourism see Gentile. On Mussolini’s omnipresence on posters, in photographs and on postcards see Gentile and Bosworth, Whispering Cities. Also see Bosworth for the Anni Fascisti, the Fascist calendar and competition with the Church. On the surviving remnants of the Ghetto degli Inglesi, the illegality of fancy dress and travel possibilities to Rome see Karl Baedeker, Rome and Central Italy, Handbook for Travellers, sixteenth revised edition (1930).

  On Italians’ increasing longevity see Massimo Livi-Bacci, A History of Italian Fertility During the Last Two Centuries (1977). On the dopolavoro after-work leisure organization, Italy’s media under Fascism and intellectual life see Tannenbaum. On how Fascist corporations and Fascist welfare favoured the wealthy and exploited employees see also Jonathan Dunnage, Twentieth Century Italy: A Social History (2002). On how welfare funds were regularly raided by the Fascist state to pay for grand projects see Maria Sophia Quine, Italy’s Social Revolution: Charity and Welfare from Liberalism to Fascism (2002). On Rome’s aristocrat Fascist mayors see Painter. On everyday life in the Case Popolari and Romans’ struggle to keep clean see Gian Franco Venè, Mille lira al mese: vita quotidiana della famiglia nell’Italia Fascista (1988). On the borgate see Quine, Gentile and Painter. On the barruché see Bosworth, Whispering Cities.

  On Fascism’s view of women see Perry Willson, Women in Twentieth Century Italy (2009) and also Tannenbaum a
nd Quine. Mussolini’s claim that work could make women sterile is from Willson. On Fascism’s approval of brothels see Dunnage. On Fascist rewards to prolific parents and Mussolini’s prohibition of photographs of women with small dogs see Tannenbaum. On the danger of women being out alone and Rome’s lack of night-time culture see Gentile. On Fascist violence and control of Italians, internal exile and the fate of the Roman tinsmith Ruggeri Leggi see Michael R. Ebner’s fascinating analysis of how the threat of physical violence always underlays Fascism, Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy (2011). On the effect on Jewish life of the 1938 Racial Laws see Ebner and also Michele Sarfatti, The Jews in Mussolini’s Italy: From Equality to Persecution and Susan Zuccotti (2006) The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue and Survival (1987). On corruption among Fascist officials, their accusations of sexual immorality against one another and the diminishing success of Fascist propaganda see Paul Corner’s fascinating and revealing study of one of the more reliable sources of information at this time – spies informing the regime of the state of the nation – in The Fascist Party and Popular Opinion in Mussolini’s Italy (2012). On the failure of Fascism’s great projects see Livi-Bacci, Tannenbaum, Corner and Quine. On the fragility of Italy’s control of Abyssinia see Richard Pankhurst, The Ethiopians, A History (1998). On Fascism’s failure to instil anti-Semitism in Italians, Starace’s much-loathed innovations, Italians’ increasing apathy and the coffee crisis of 1938–39 see Corner. On Fascist propaganda’s failure to persuade Italian women see Willson.

  On Hitler’s 1938 visit to Rome and also Colonel J. Hanley’s observations of the crowd in Piazza Venezia on the day war was declared, see Painter. On Italians’ lack of enthusiasm for the German alliance and the war see Corner. On the unprepared state of Italy’s military in 1940 see R. J. B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship (2005). On Mussolini’s disastrous record as a military tactician see Denis Mack Smith, Mussolini. On the Folgore Parachute Division see John Bierman and Colin Smith, Alamein, War Without Hate (2002). On Rome’s coastline being guarded by two soldiers sharing one pair of boots and the final celebration of Empire Day see de Wyss. On the third and final Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista see Painter.

  III

  A clear and highly detailed account of the last hours of the Badoglio regime and the fall of Rome to German forces can be found in Claudio Fracassi, La Battaglia di Rome (2014). Details of the two American generals’ dinner and their meeting with Badoglio are from Fracassi, as are the meeting of the king’s council at the Quirinal Palace, the flight of the king and his ministers, the orders they gave Italian forces and Italian resistance (and non-resistance) to German forces. The story of the Italian officer who deserted his troops to check on his racehorses is from M. de Wyss. Mother Mary, another invaluable diarist of these events, is also rather elusive, if less so than de Wyss. Her account Inside Rome with the Germans was published in 1945 under the pseudonym of Jane Scrivener and it was only some decades later that she was revealed to be an American nun in Rome, Mother Mary St Luke, who was living in a convent not far from Via Veneto.

  On the fall of Rome and the beginning of the occupation see also Katz, Fatal Silence. The joke about tourists and the statue of Moses is from Alexander Stille, Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism (1991). Stille’s insightful and humane account of these terrible times includes a chapter on the struggle to survive by members of the Roman Di Veroli family. On the gold ransom demanded of Rome’s Jews, the theft of the synagogue libraries and the Ghetto roundup of 16 October, Robert Katz, Black Sabbath: A Journey Through a Crime Against Humanity (1969) offers a full, detailed and powerful account. For the likelihood that the gold demand was a ruse to put the Jews off their guard see also Susan Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy (2002). On life for Jewish Romans before the occupation and warnings ignored, including by German diplomats, see Stille and also Katz. Debenedetti wrote October 16, 1943 shortly after the liberation but quotes in the text are from the translation by Estelle Gilson (2001). On Kappler’s report detailing how Romans tried to thwart the roundup see Katz, Fatal Silence. On details of which Catholic institutions took in Jews and what conditions – if any – they required see Zuccotti. On the rise of Pius XII and his response to Nazism and the Holocaust see John Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope, The Secret History of Pius XII (1999). On the intervention by Princess Enza Pignatelli Aragona Cortes see Katz, Fatal Silence and Stille. On Pius’ lack of response to the Ghetto roundup see Zuccotti, Cornwell, Katz Fatal Silence and Katz Black Sabbath. On the efforts by German diplomats to save Jewish Romans see Katz (both titles).

  The graffiti urging the Russians to hurry up is from M. de Wyss, as are the accounts of deserting Germans. Details of Rome’s declining transport and bricked-up shops are from both de Wyss and Mother Mary. The raid on Rome’s Fascist HQ is from de Wyss. On the background to Roman resistance to the Germans and attacks on Germans in December 1944 see Katz, Fatal Silence. Also see Katz and de Wyss and Mother Mary for new curfews and other restrictions and also raids on Church establishments by Koch’s gang. On Celeste di Porto see Stille.

  On the Anzio landing, the bombing raids that followed, the arrests of Rome’s resistance and also on Peter Tomkins and Malfatti’s information-gathering network see Katz, Fatal Silence. On Allied bombing of Rome see also de Wyss and Mother Mary. On the Via Rasella bomb and the ensuing Fosse Ardeatina massacre see Robert Katz, Fatal Silence, whose account my narrative follows. On German trucks painted with Vatican colours and keeping close to Vatican food trucks see Mother Mary. On General Clark’s dash for Rome see Katz, Fatal Silence. On German demolitions in the city see Mother Mary.

  INDEX

  A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

  abitato, 169, 231

  Abruzzo, 256

  Abyssinia, see Ethiopia

  Acqua Damasiana, 133, 233

  Acqua Felice, 233

  Acqua Paola, 233

  Acqua Vergine, 133, 182, 233

  Acqua Virgo, 130

  Adrian VI, Pope, 158, 181, 190

  Adrianople, battle of (378), 32, 48

  adultery, 244–7, 312

  Aeneid (Virgil), 64, 79

  Aeolian Islands, 101

  Africa, province of, 54, 60, 70, 78

  Agenzia Stefani, 302

  Agnes of Poitou, 118, 119

  Aguyar, 261, 262, 268

  Alaric I, king of the Visigoths, 31, 33, 34–7, 40, 65–78, 145

  Alba, duke of, see de Toledo, Fernando Álvarez

  Alban Hills, 339

  Albania, 35, 170

  Alberada of Buonalbergo, 122

  Alberic II of Spoleto, 132

  Albinius, Lucius, 19, 24

  Albinus, 80

  alcohol, 245

  Alexander ‘Clippings’, 99

  Alexander II, Pope, 127

  Alexander III, Pope, 135

  Alexander the Great, 46

  Alexander VI, Pope, 170, 174, 179, 181, 189

  Alexander VII, Pope, 233–5

  Alexander, Harold, 347, 348

  Alexius I Comemnus, Byzantine emperor, 123, 141, 142, 144, 145

  Alfonso I d’Este, duke of Ferrara, 157, 179, 183, 208

  Alfonso of Aragon, 179

  Algeria, 47, 65

  All Saints’ Church, 285

  Allia, battle of the (387 BC), 5–9, 12, 18, 22, 24

  Almansi, Dante, 328

  Alps, 35

  Amalasuntha, queen regent of the Ostrogoths, 81–7

  Amatus of Montecassino, 123

  Ambasciatori Hotel, 299

  Ambrose, bishop of Milan, 64

  Ambrosiano, 320, 322

  American Episcop
al, 285

  Amodeus, Pietro Paolo, 207

  Anacaletus II, Pope, 151

  anarchists, 309

  Anastasius, Byzantine emperor, 94, 95

  Andrew, Roland G., 294, 299–300

  Andrew, Saint, 239

  Anecdota (Procopius of Caesarea), 85–7

  Anglicanism, 236, 285, 299

  Anicia Faltonia Proba, 71–2, 77, 93

  Anicii family, 72, 93

  Anno Fascista, 296

  Anno, archbishop of Cologne, 118, 127, 139

  Ansaldi, Giovanni, 205

  Anthemius, Western Roman emperor, 90

  antiquities, 90–91, 125, 188–9, 191, 238, 284, 299, 349

  Antonina, 86

  Anzio radio, 348

  Anzio, battle of (1944), 339–42, 348, 352

  Aosta, duke of, see Emanuele Filiberto

  apartment blocks, 38, 49, 57, 89, 91, 124, 290, 293, 304

  Apennines, 6, 321, 325, 326

  Apollo, 357

  Appia Antica, 284

  aqueducts

  Western Roman Empire era (285–476), 53, 57

  Ostrogothic Kingdom era (493–553), 87, 91, 92, 96, 98

  Byzantine Empire era (553–754), 108

  Papal States era (754–1870), 130, 133, 182, 233, 253

  Aquitaine, 79

  Ara Pacis, 356

  Arabs, 79, 111, 131, 183

  Aragon, 161

  Arch of Janus, 291

  archaeology, 29–30, 79, 284

  Ardeatina diggings, 345

  Argentina, 228, 350

  Arianism, 95

  aristocracy

  Roman Republic era (509–27 BC), 12, 13, 25, 39

  Western Roman Empire era (285–476), 41, 62–3, 64, 65, 70

  Ostrogothic Kingdom era (493–553), 93, 94

  Papal States era (754–1870), 117, 126, 136–7, 221, 242

  Fascist era (1922–44), 303–4

  Aristotle, 24, 184

  Ark of the Covenant, 152

  Arles, France, 67