Riccione’s leftwing mayor, Daniela Angelini, says public purchase is victory for town and ‘act of love and vision’
An Italian council has bought a villa where Benito Mussolini spent his summer holidays, partly to avoid the property falling into the hands of “fascist nostalgics”.
Daniela Angelini, the leftwing mayor of Riccione, a town close to Rimini along Italy’s Adriatic coast, said the acquisition of Villa Mussolini through an auction was “an act of love and vision” and that bringing it back into public hands was a victory for the entire town.
Riccione’s council had fended off competition from a private buyer who was a former member of the Italian Social Movement, the neofascist party founded in 1946 by Mussolini’s lingering supporters.
The villa has a long and, unsurprisingly, controversial history. Built steps away from the sea in 1893, it was bought by Mussolini’s second wife, Rachele, in 1934. The fascist dictator, who was born in Predappio, another town in the Emilia-Romagna region, would arrive by seaplane and often used the villa for government business during his stays. The Mussolini family expanded the property to include a third floor, 20 rooms and a tennis court.
