The northern Italian city of Verona is in a flap about naming a street after a local hero who fought and died for Mussolini at the end of the Second World War.
Stefano Rizzardi, a local aristocrat, stayed loyal to the Fascist dictator and joined his northern-based Italian Social Republic (RSI) after Italy made peace with the Allies.
Unlike most Fascist diehards he distinguished himself by many acts of clemency, including saving the life of a Resistance fighter, before he was killed by Yugoslav guerrillas in 1943.
The decision to name a street after Rizzardi was taken in 2005 on a bipartisan motion by Verona's then centre-left council.
But the centre-left Democratic Party wants to reverse the move, saying that Rizzardi ''deserves our respect but picked the wrong side''.
Verona's pointman on street names, Daniele Polato, told a local paper Wednesday that the row was ''a storm in a tea-cup''.
''It isn't about rehabilitating someone who fought for the RSI. One of the main reasons for calling the street after Count Rizzardi is that he saved the partisan's life''.
Polato recalled that the 2005 petition included a statement from the man the count saved.
