9460 Reminders of Mussolini and some light (?) reading

I was intrigued to read today that certain supporters of the new mayor of Rome have allegedly greeted him with the fascist salute and with cries of 'Duce'. And also interested to read that he has written to the Pope and to the Chief Rabbi.

If anyone is interested in reading about about the fate of Jews under Mussolini (rather better than under Hitler, but hardly a bed of roses), they might like to read [I]Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism[/I] by Alexander Stille. This book looks at the lives of families in Turin, Rome, Genoa and Ferrara, and is a great deal more readable than its title might suggest.

For those who like historical adventure novels, [I]A Thread of Grace[/I] by Mary Doria Russell is based on the experience of Jewish refugees who on the collapse of Italian-occupied France escaped from St Martin Vesubie into what turned into the dubious safety of the puppet Salo republic. A rollicking iif perhaps romanticised tale of life and the resistance in a fictionalised version of wartime Piedmont and Liguria.

I don't think either of these are now in print, but I expect they're available cheap and secondhand on Amazon etc.