My research at the BSR looked at the memory and reception of fascism within an area of fascist foundation: Mount Terminillo in the province of Rieti, built in 1934 as a tourist resort and known in fascist mythology as the ‘Mountain of Rome’. After the first pioneering works at the end of the 1970s, scholars increasingly are tackling the thorny question of the relationship between the fascist regime and ordinary people. On the one hand, emphasis has been placed on the local dimension of fascism and on the role of pre-existing socio-cultural realities in mediating and understanding fascism. On the other, the importance of emotional and mythological aspects surrounding the figure of Mussolini has been stressed as the main factor in the popular acceptance of fascism. Methodologies to study the reception of fascism, however, are still much debated, while research still needs to be done within specific micro-historical realities on how it was received and negotiated at grass-roots level. The aim of my research at the BSR, therefore, was two-fold. Firstly, to look at the reception and memory of fascism within a previously un-researched rural community and, secondly, to assess the relevance, within this context, of both the specific characters of local fascism and of emotional/cultural factors such as the cult of the duce, the myths of Roman Empire, sport and virility, tourism and fascist modernization. I did so by combining the use of official sources and oral history research.

During my nine months at the BSR I firstly researched the State Archives in Rome and Rieti, as well as minor archives such as the Club Alpino Italiano's archives, both to reconstruct the origins and development of the Terminillo project and assess its relevance as the ‘Mountain of Rome’ within the fascist mythology and in relation to the figure of the duce. Given the lack of secondary sources, I also spent time investigating the characteristics of local fascism within the Rieti province with a specific focus on the morale of ordinary people as described in State, party and police reports. Secondly, I collected oral history interviews and other ‘subjective’ sources (that is diaries, memoirs, photo albums) from people from the areas surrounding Mount Terminillo who were born under the regime. About fifteen interviews were collected directly, while others were gathered from local newspapers and radio broadcasts. This also allowed me to look at the changing nature of individual and collective memories of fascism from the end of the 1960s onwards. Among its main outcomes, my research highlighted a strongly localized character for the reception and memory of fascism in comparison to previous research I conducted on another site of fascist foundation. Notwithstanding the relevance of the tourist resort as a factor of local modernization, the Terminillo project — and the way it was shaped by the dialectic between central government and provincial institutions — had controversial effects on the collective memory of the local communities, which were in sharp contrast with propaganda's emphasis on fascist mythology and are still reflected in the local image of Mussolini and fascism. This research will be the source of one academic article and a monograph combining findings on two different sites of fascist foundation.

During my Fellowship I also had the opportunity to collaborate on a workshop and exhibition on the bombing of Rome in the Second World War and its memories, while refining the literary review for the publication of an article from my previous research. I benefited from the work of the BSR's award-holders and internal activities (for example, guided trips to Rome's fascist sites), and from the cultural exchange with artists and scholars working on themes such as cultural myths and their reception from an interdisciplinary outlook. I am therefore very grateful to the BSR's staff and residents for their intellectual input, company and hospitality, and also for their support and accommodating attitude in the special circumstances that arose during my Fellowship.