Word: fabiani
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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There also is the Florence of Mario Fabiani, and he is the present. Fabiani is Florence's Communist mayor...
...Fabiani certainly enjoys the mayoralty, now that the people have given it to him. To approach the office of this proletarian dignitary, you pass through a courtyard with Verrocchio's famous bronze put to, then up the stairs to the great hall with its Vasari frescoes and a Michelangelo statue, thence into an anteroom which used to be Pope Leo's chamber. Nothing so vulgar as a "no smoking" sign could be tolerated here; carefully chiseled stone tablets proclaim: "ll Sind-aco proibisce di fumare in questa sola" (The Mayor forbids smoking in this hall...
Free-Thinking Communists. The mayor himself is ensconced next door, in what used to be Pope Clement VII's study. For the summer, Fabiani has abandoned the prevalent Communist fashion (dark double-breasted suit) for an open sport shirt and a light linen jacket. Though only 35, he is a veteran Communist. Nine years in Fascist jails have shrunk his face, left his eyes deepset in sallow sockets. His line is conciliation: "If we Communists were in power in Italy today, we would not destroy private property. Private property has its function to fulfill in Italy for years & years...
...Fabiani hedging against the future? Later, at a lake resort, I talked to sleek, handsome Aldo d'Elia, Florence's Fascist "chief of cabinet" from, 1934 to 1944. D'Elia consoles himself that the Florentine public is as cynically volatile today as in Savonarola's time. D'Elia says: "Florence is a pagan city. The people are easily impassioned, caustic and fickle. They will one day treat their present rulers as they treated...