I came across some pics from 1935 or so taken in Rome of an area that was due to be leveled shortly to build new govt. buildings. I will try to find the link. The area was run down for sure, and the people who lived there clearly lived in poverty.

What struck me as odd is the architecture of the apartment blocks. They looked like original Roman insulae from the first century AD, probably constructed after the Great Fire of Rome.

While not beautiful, they clearly had historical importance. Mussolini was big on creating a new Roman Empire, so one would think he would preserve old buildings from Roman antiquity.

Does anyone have any info about Mussolini's plans for Rome and how far he got?

He skipped most of the middle and went right to the end

This is a place where sharing would really help.
I'm interested.

Would you be talking about EUR ? Mussolini started building this with the intention of a World Exposition but it never happened because of the war. Mussolini wanted to restore the Roman Empire more or less and this was one of his showcases.

I lived in Frosinone (German HQ during WW2) and went to school in Rome at the Overseas School of Rome in 1975. Company driver took my brother and me to school every day. Went to EUR every afternoon for some kind of errand or something. Interesting architecture. Had a teacher that worshiped Mussolini. Thought he walked in water. Mussolini’s granddaughter went to OSR the year after we went back to the States.

Mussolini May have lasted longer if he had stopped after conquering Ethiopia (outdated planes  and tanks against spears) and not hooked up with Hitler. Italy’s technology not anywhere up to par with even the worst the US had. Italian soldiers hearts not in it. We had a friend who was in the Italian army and was captured by the Brits. They put him in a POW camp in England. He liked England so much he stayed there and retired from British Leyland before retiring back home in Italy. Great guy.

Loved Italy.

The Italian Navy`s Vittorio Venetto class fast battleships compared favorably to their  contemporaries except for the lack of radar. I`m really surprised Mussolini & Hitler never standardized a lot of their equipment. They basically fought their own wars until Mussolini screwed up and Hitler had to come to the rescue. Something else to consider, the bulk of the remaining Italian  surface fleet sortied to attack the US landing at Salerno. IIRC it included all three of the Vittorio Venetto class battleships. It could have turned out badly for the US, but the armistice was signed by the new Italian government and the fleet turned away to sail to Malta for internment.

I think you are referring to the Altare della Patria. This is the massive white building with columns and bronze horses on top located at the end of National st (I refer to that as the main drag).  It did wipe out a lot of Capotiline Hill but was designed way before Mussolini, he was the one who got it built.

It is interesting in that they did leave a lot of the underground part of Capotiline hill intact, below the building and I suspect you can tour them with a special pass. You can also view them from the west? side though an open viewing area on the street level..  I have seen the pics and who knows what we lost. The Vatican did move in and help clean the area before demolition and they ended up with a massive haul from it. I am not too fond of the Vatican, but they were the very first to understand how important the area is and do a good job trying to preserve it( not bringing up wha t they did to the Colosseum.

A lot of ancient Rome is underground due to sinking, building up etc.  I dont think you could NOT hit Roman stuff by digging more than 10' down. They still find lots of stuff every time they do. You can go blocks in every direction from the Altare and the buildings are all ancient, they just look like boring buildings with the stucco.

Just an FYI, most of the buildings in the area are Roman or slightly newer. They just stucco over the stone or roman brick so it looks more modern and live in them to this day.  There is a church not too far from there that most people would not believe how old it is due to the modern stucco. It has a foundation rising several feet above the road that pre-dates the Romans and they left one side unfinished so people can see it.

I am pretty fascinated by the Roman era and cant seem to get enough of the area. Every time I go, I learn more about it.

The idea of living in an apartment building where families have lived for over 2000 years that is mostly unchanged is pretty awesome, IMO.

I just think it's cool as hell.

You might like this then.

Its Theater of Mercellus in Rome looks like a mini Colosseum, built in 25-10 BC, rebuilt over the ages and now has apartments and offices on top. BTW, this area is totally free to walk around in and just as interesting as Capitoline Hill. Its actually at the bottom and around the corner from the Altare della Patri.

Fascists took down a part of ancient Rome right in front of San Peter's cathedral... That zone was called "borgo Pio" (borgo is a neighborhood, pio means religious), an old part of the city where people lived in small streets, and it was mostly occupied by poors, laborers, and mixed with thieves, hangovers and prostitutes. In the xix century (1800) the pope authority put a tax on the prostitution in borgo pio, and the money they raised was used to improve the neighborhood itself... It was not unknown that the big deal of the sex market  there was due to the presence of lots of priests and religious men themselves... I'm not joking I swear. They wanted to build the now called via della conciliazione. To build that, they partially destroyed borgo pio.

The Vittoriano, also said Altare della Patria, was not built during fascist era, but many years before, as a monument for vittorio Emanuele II (the second) that was considered the father of the homeland, because he reigned over reunited Italy in 1861, after Garibaldi defeated the southern regno di Sicilia  with the famous spedizione dei mille.
Fascism was obsessed with big monuments, big spaces, that should give to the world and to the Italians themselves the idea of the "might" and power of the state and their leader.

ADDENDUM: the fascists also destroyed the quartiere Alessandrino, another ancient neighborhood, to make via dell'impero that goes from piazza Venezia to colosseum. The other route, built after destroying borgo pio, goes from San Pietro to Castel Sant'Angelo, the mausoleo Adriano.

So, during the Mussolini era, they destroyed lots of old houses to build very large roads that were important for them.

Regia Marina (Navy) was not prepared for war until 1944-5.  It was slowly building up its oil reserves.   Mussolini saw the German victory over France and decided not to miss out on the action.  Mistake.  Italian Army and people were not ready for war.  Artillery was old, tankettes could not fight British A-9, A-10 or A-14 tanks yet alone Matildas. Their airforce could not fight on par against the RAF.  Benito should have waited until 1944/5.

Italy's technology wasn't that bad, they had some good designs for cruiser tanks, fighter planes, and ships, it was mostly they did not really have the industrial base to produce them.  Either the Tank Museum or Mark Felton or someone had a good piece on their cruiser tank, but they designed it for the African campaign to go up against the early British tanks.  By the time it got past prototype staged, the African campaign was over, and it would have totally inadequate against the tanks fielded in Europe.

The Italians actually had some pretty good units and equipment....and some pretty awful ones.  Their single biggest problem was most of the country wasn't particularly enthusiastic about fighting the UK and USSR on the side of the Germans.  Once the US came in it got worse.  

Also, the Army and to a lesser extent the air force were crippled by a lackluster officer and non-existent NCO corps, except in some elite units (the Folgore, Caribinieri and Alpine troops were excellent).  

Finally, Italy simply lacked the industrial base to compete.  There simply wasn't enough raw materials and industry to build and maintain a modern army, navy and airforce of sufficient size.  CANADA outproduced Italy in tanks, aircraft and warships.

I'm a bit late to the party but just yesterday I stumbled across this documentary and it reminded me of this thread. The insulae you described appears at about the 7:30 minute mark. She even goes inside. Pretty neat.

It's interesting to see the attitudes of modern people living in places like Rome where you can't swing a cat without hitting something ancient and historically relevant.  A living city cannot be a museum too.

It’s interesting that you mentioned that your teacher worshiped him because my brothers in the navy and they went over and one of the guys in his group bought a Mussolini shirt and he said a lot of the older guys they saw kept giving him the thumbs up and patting him on the back, my brother said they seem to still look at him with favorable intentions

I wonder how ww2 would’ve played out if Italy had been neutral.  Or at least us style neutral.

There’d be no invasion of Sicily, no African campaign, etc.  

Germany wouldn’t have to expend resources defending Italy which would open up those sorely needed troops and equipment and fuel for other areas.  

Maybe no changes to the outcome but it’s interesting to think about.