"After a moving farewell in Berlin and a triumphal procession of the Führer along the whole route over German territory the train arrived in Italy." "With a festal salutation by the Fascist organisations Hitler's victorial passage to Rome starts." "From the Brenner till in Rome the Führer was greeted with the modesty of the political organisations and with an honest national spirit." "The capital prepared itself to receive the Führer in a festive yet simple way." "The fascist flag and the swastika the colors of both nations, are blowing in the wind." "At the station the Duce together with minister of foreign affairs Ciano meets His Majesty the King." "A cannon shot announces the train of the Führer who is welcomed with cheering and the German national anthem." "Then follows the solemn meeting between the Führer, the King and the Duce, founder of the Fascist empire." "After the warm welcome the first meeting took place at the Palazzo Quirinale.." "...with the Duce and the ministers Ciano, Storace and Alfieri." "Afterwards the two leaders left for a drive in an open car." "The following cars contained the ministers Von Ribbentrop, Hess and Göbbels who had joined their colleagues." "The route goes along Circo Massimo and the Viale Africa to Parta San Paolo and Porta Capena." "The area where the Roman Empire left its traces." "The salute to the Unknown Soldier is accompanied by belligerent ostentation." "The middle of the square is full of legionaries." "The Führer and four soldiers lay a wreath with red ribbons with swastikas." "The two leaders salute the Unknown Soldier." "After the salute, at which the arms have been raised unitedly a solemn hymn sounds from the ranks that is loaded with male transport." "It's the battle prayer." "From this we gather that the spirit of Mussolini's warriors weathered by many terrible ordeals is synonymous with heroism and sacrifice." "The first day of the Führer's visit ends in front of an enormous crowd." "But tomorrow will bring the great day on the Via dei Fori Imperiali when the great parade of our two armed forces will take place." "All of Rome will be present when the co-operation of both nations is sealed." "Umberto" "Umberto, get up." "Fabio, Arnaldo." "Get up." "Romana." "You go to the toilet first." "Maria Luisa, wake up." "Emanuele." "Emanuele, it's late already." "Is that necessary at five in the morning?" "It's already almost six." "Six?" "Couldn't you wake me earlier?" "I did." "So little?" "A strong little cup of coffee." "Maria Luisa, get up." "You'll even keep Hitler waiting." "Now look at this, six o'clock." "No time for gymnastics." "Then don't come home so late." "Can't I ever have a game of cards with friends?" "Yes, yes, 'with friends'." "Littorio." "Come on sweetie." "I'm sleepy." "Much too early for such a toddler." "If you come too late, it won't by my fault." "Come on, it's late already." "Ears." "Is the toilet free?" "Hurry up, Fabio." "Come to the kitchen." "Hurry up, papa has to go in." "Don't push." "I was first." "My boots." "Umberto, give him his cod-liver oil." "I'll bring them to the cobbler tomorrow." "What good is that to me now?" "Are you going to the parade or out to dance?" "Stop nagging." "Yugoslavia wants to manage Dalmatia we said: get stuffed!" "Cursing all the time." "That's a patriotic song." "It is ill-mannered." "What is this?" "Not the holy Catherina." "Be ashamed." "If your father would hear this..." "I got it from him." "What would he care that his child is being spoiled?" "You can go blind from that." "Ask the chaplain." "You mean that half-blind man?" "Yes, that one." "He has cataract, you dummy." "And go wash your face." "Aren't you getting dressed?" "I'm not going." "Then there'll be the devil to pay." "Why don't you want to?" "They're teasing me because I'm fat." "So what?" "Fat is beautiful." "Get dressed." "Mum, there's a hole here." "Just let it be." "Watch out for the milk and get the cups." "Would we get something to eat?" "You'll get ration." "Mom, can you help me with this sash?" "Stand up." "Pull." "Littorio doesn't want to." "My arm is in." "Then pay attention." "Blow your nose in it as well." "In those rags?" "They nicked my pom-pom." "It's not called like that." "It's called a tassel or a plume." "Use normal words." "Then you bring normal magazines." "What's with you?" "It's not your mother's day today." "They pinched my thingy." "What should I do now?" "I only have two hands." "Hurry up you." "We are going to the Circo Massimo." "And we to the obelisk." "Are you still here?" "Wouldn't you make up your bed first?" "Excuse me." "This one is white." "We'll make it black." "Is breakfast ready?" "Yes, yes." "Me first." "Hurry up then." "Hold on, your fez." "If you have to pee, tell me in time this time." "I did." "Iron my blue suit for the promotion of Rinaldi tomorrow." "I don't know him." "The one that works at the archives." "Daddy's beautiful little wolf." "You'll have to tell me everything tonight." "Aren't you going?" "Well, if you don't have any domestic help..." "There is always only one mother." "But we could use three of those here." "One that does the rooms one that cleans the kitchen." "And the third one would be me." "That one is going to bed again." "Let's start here." "Jam..." "Antoneta." "First the beds." "Leave him alone." "In the pygmy empire..." "Darned, they are like leeches." "Get that Italian." "Surprising that such small beasts commit such beastliness." "Damn, we'd better turn to..." "I am called Antonietta, not Antoneta." "Either you say it correctly or you shut your pecker." "Understood?" "You'll have to make do with this." "Friday you'll get a new one." "I don't have any time for you today." "Here is some extra seed and now keep quiet." "Where are you going?" "Rosmunda, come here." "I said, come here." "This isn't funny." "Good, stay there." "Don't move." "Sir." "Rosmunda has escaped." "Rosmunda has escaped." "That's not a human, but a bird." "A grackle." "Maybe I could grab her from your window, if I may?" "There she is." "Come on, I have a snack." "She didn't eat yet." "Maybe if you put it on this..." "I'm sorry I am disturbing you, but she's a part of the family." "Otherwise there'll be hell tonight." "Luckily you didn't go to the parade." "I would have liked to go." "But with a husband and so many children to take care of..." "Do you know how many children I have?" "No, you are not disturbing at all." "I said I have six children." "by your seventh they give you a bonus and..." "That doesn't interest you at all." "Why are you laughing?" "Just like that." "Life is made up of different moments." "And sometimes you have to laugh just like that, just as with sneezing." "Don't you ever have that?" "You are laughing at me." "No." "But I should be grateful to you." "And I am grateful to you that you came now of all times." "I don't understand." "Forget about it." "I am not my normal self today." "I have to go." "Wait." "Could I offer you something?" "Although I haven't got much." "No, I really have to go." "Please, one cup of coffee." "No, I really have to go." "As you wish." "Sorry for the mess." "Are you reading this one?" "Yes, I have a lot of spare time." "Didn't I say so?" "The Four Musketeers from the radio." "We are also playing." "Here there're only three." "Let's say, the original." "Do you want to read it?" "I would like to." "But I don't have the time anyway." "You can keep it." "In any case I was..." "It will have to be another time." "I don't think that..." "I have been living here for two months and we have never seen each other." "When do things like that happen again?" "When Rosmunda escapes again." "Hello?" "It's you." "Finally." "Yes, almost everything." "It's not much, only books." "Most of them belong to you." "I heard about it yesterday." "They are always doing that during those ceremonies." "By way of precaution." "He'll be out in a couple of days." "Yes, excuse me." "I'll call you back soon." "See you soon." "You want to know the purpose of that?" "Pay attention." "And back." "Give me a hand." "Watch the numbers." "Ahead." "Start left." "But what is this?" "What are we doing?" "The rumba." "I can't dance." "My oldest daughter can but me on my age." "I have a ladder in my stocking." "Just put it on newly this morning." "Give it a try." "It's very easy." "Start left." "Are you going out to dance often?" "Never." "So why are you learning the rumba?" "Just like that." "That is less suitable to dance on." "I'd better go." "I have something on the stove." "Pleased to meet you." "My name is Gabriele." "We even didn't introduce ourselves." "Pleased to meet you, Antonietta Tiberi." "That is a beautiful name." "Italian broadcasting-organization EIAR." "Station Rome, Naples, Bari Milan, Turin, Genoa, Trieste, Florence, Bolzano." "All EIAR-stations together with the stations of the Reich and the new one in Addis Ababa will broadcast the report about the parade in honor of the Führer." "I caught her." "We are switching to the Via dei Trionfi." "At the base of the Palatino and the Celio along one of the most beautiful roads of Mussolini's Rome it is crowded with people." "Hundreds of thousands of Italians and foreigners have come from far and near to be present at this celebration and the Eternal City welcomes them in all her majesty." "A festive mood during the waiting and an orderly swarming everywhere." "...a clear proof of efficiency in all layers of citizenry." "Also in the barracks great joy holds dominion." "Troops that went to battle yesterday, are forming a guard of honor now." "Furbished up and all they are waiting for the starting signal." "The huge stream of people has been put on the right lines." "The streets have a classical sight now they are full of a people that has earned its footprints.." "...as rivers in which human destiny has flooded its banks." "He called her back straight away." "Why should I care?" "It's your fault I lost the whole morning." "I should be used to it." "Already when I was a child I was locked up or alone." "Of course you do matter." "It's only so absurd." "They want us to feel guilty." "Today I almost had, how does one say that, committed a stupidity." "The arrival of an opposite neighbor saved me." "No, you can rest easy." "Life is worth living anyway?" "A bird will come to remind you of it." "Only it's a special day for me today." "Just like in a dream in which you want to scream but you cannot." "And I want to talk, talk." "You notice that?" "I would like to step into the street and tell a stranger all about myself." "I would like to scare him, threaten him, do something to him." "Everything better than being locked up here." "You say nothing?" "Marco?" "Then say some something, damnit!" "It doesn't matter." "About the weather, sports, a book you're reading." "Sorry." "Yes, you are having a tough time as well." "No, we can't see one another and that is just as well." "If you lose the courage, you need to work off your emotions otherwise you're done for." "You understand?" "Let's just laugh about it." "Crying can be done alone, but not laughing." "Do you recall that time in Ostia with that watermelon?" "Now come on, please, laugh." "What a sad friend have I chosen." "Do you know will lie heaviest upon me?" "Your absence." "Get well again soon." "Tell me how you're doing." "Yes, I will call you at once." "Bye." "Think about me as much as you can." "O, it's you?" "You don't look very happy." "When there's knocking on the door, I'm always having a bit of a fright." "They are always saying 'friends' although you don't know them." "You met them once." "You forgot to take this." "I hadn't forgotten." "I didn't want to take advantage." "And why?" "No, really not." "You're doing me a favor." "There are also pictures inside." "You are so kind that it makes me shy." "The airplanes." "When the airplanes come over..." "The 'fascinating life of a pilot'" "It will take me long." "I have little time to read." "Considering all the work here." "Thank you again." "Would you have a cup of coffee?" "Coffee?" "Of course." "I beg your pardon." "Please come in." "But don't pay attention to the mess." "Order is the virtue of mediocrity." "In that case I must be a genius." "I thought you had already made coffee." "It only takes a minute, but not here." "No men in the kitchen." "I am used to it, being a bachelor." "Bachelor?" "Then you're paying extra taxes." "Just as if loneliness is such a wealth." "May I?" "I like to do that." "My grandpa had every grandchild grind three times." "Till all beans had been grinded." "He got angry when I had turned four times." "I'll go get my coffeepot." "In which line of work are you?" "I am a presenter for the radio." "For the radio?" "But I have been suspended." "Till some things have been cleared up." "That curl looks nice on you." "It always comes off." "My husband works at the ministry for East-Africa." "He is, how shall I put it head of a department." "But your work will probably give you satisfaction as well." "Fairly well, yes." "We don't have any radio yet because we..." "Who could that be?" "'Friends' that's what they say right?" "Who is there?" "It's me." "I am coming to get the key of the terrace." "You ought to have it." "I have to get the laundry." "What's wrong?" "I wasn't thinking about you." "If you're alone and there's a ring at the door..." "Exactly what I wanted to say to you." "Like they generally say:" "Better off alone than in bad company." "That one over there, I know nothing about it, but it looks to me as if you'd be better off seeing the back of him." "The gentleman from across?" "He helped me with Rosmunda." "I don't want have anything to do with it." "I only know that it's a queer fish, a strange guy, a villain." "In short, I don't like him and he me neither." "Excuse me." "That was the warden." "She knows that you are here." "She has certainly seen you." "I didn't say anything." "Not because one thing and another all this, but it's such a gossip monger." "Maybe it would be better..." "You want me to go." "I don't want you to." "You are so kind." "I am sorry but it's better." "It's always about what others think." "Even though they are wrong." "And what about you?" "You also stopped grinding coffee so that she couldn't hear you." "Hold on for a second." "I also want coffee." "Come." "I don't want to cause you any trouble." "You also said it would be better..." "I said, I said..." "I am not used to it." "You are a stranger and nobody is home." "Maybe it's not right." "I am boring you with all this babbling." "You'd better have gone to a bar." "It's always sinking." "It needs more counterweight." "Are you also an electrician on top of being a.." "what's the name of that, presenter?" "So you are talking and all Italy listens." "And if you rush into laughing?" "There is a heavy fine on that." "Did you get it?" "You bet." "There we have our Rosmunda." "This is one of your colleagues?" "Guido Lotari." "He is very good, he doesn't rush into laughing." "That's the alarm clock." "I set it for each hour, in order to divide my time better." "If it goes off again, it's 12 o'clock." "Wouldn't you better watch the clock?" "I forget that all the time." "Are you crazy?" "You can't do that here in the room." "Where are you going?" "I love to ride a scooter." "I'm getting coffee." "Please sit down." "I don't want to be troublesome." "As long as you stay seated." "Weird to see yourself from the opposite side." "What did you say?" "Nothing." "Do you know Rabagliati personally?" "I imagine him like a long tall man, always cheerful." "Like me." "You don't seem very cheerful to me." "That depends on the day." "He sings so beautifully, with so much feeling." "'If you say you love Mussolini I am not jealous as a husband. ' Song from the Abruzzen." "Do you like my album?" "Is it yours?" "I thought it belonged to the children." "No, it's mine." "Do you like it?" "What a beautiful horse." "That's Ned." "There's three of them:" "Ned, Aprile and Fru Fru." "How much sugar?" "Three." "No, two." "They say he mounts a horse in the morning and a woman in the evening." "Poor horses, and poor women." "They say so much about him." "Delicious." "Luckily you didn't want my coffee." "Do you know that I once met him?" "Really?" "Where?" "At the Villa Borghese." "He was passing by on his horse." "I stood still and he took a brief look at me while he was at a gallop." "I was completely ablaze." "I was standing there with a full shopping bag." "I felt my knees buckle." "Then everything around me started to turn and I fainted." "A look while at a gallop?" "Passers-by put me back on my feet and I stumbled to the tram." "That day I noticed I was expecting Littorio." "Given the physiology and the psychology of the woman the genius can only be a man." "Do you agree with that?" "Of course I do agree with that." "Why?" "The history books are full of men." "Yes, maybe a little too much." "There is no place for others, not to mention women." "You are quite a complicated man." "My mother wasn't a man, still she was a genius." "She was writing, painting, working as an accountant." "She took care of everything." "All decisions were made by her." "The only thing my father ever decided, was leaving home." "She was such a marvelous woman, but she didn't know how to keep her man." "Or maybe she didn't want to." "My mother was quite a different person." "At night when my father came home, we were still living in Naples..." "That must be her again." "Tell her I'm in here, in case they are looking for me." "Stay calm" "Why?" "I am calm." "Here is the key of the terrace." "I saw that your laundry is also dry." "Thank you." "I'll go in a bit." "Is he still there?" "Yes, he's fixing the lamp in the kitchen." "That one?" "I even wouldn't let him touch my dustbin." "What is it you have against him?" "I say this for your own good." "Certain people are bad for your name." "I didn't want to say it but that one from the sixth is a wart, a traitor an antifascist." "In short, a bastard." "Why do you think he had to leave the radio?" "They said: are you spitting in the same plate that you're eating from?" "Then please return the plate." "But such a decent man can't be an antifascist." "That doesn't mean a thing." "I know a thief that once went thieving here and is a Chief of Police now." "That doesn't mean a thing right?" "What matters is if somebody is loyal to the party." "That's the way it is right?" "Where are you?" "Here." "What are you doing?" "Fixing the lamp." "Just in case the warden comes to check it." "You have been eavesdropping." "Only in the beginning." "The rest was too soft." "Never mind." "I have to go upstairs." "I'm almost finished." "What did she say about me?" "Nothing." "What should she say?" "I am her favorite subject, after her late husband of course who chose to die in the black shirt." "He was a good man, a fascist." "Not a defeatist not a subversive person." "Like me." "You see?" "When people talk, some part of it is always true." "That one from the sixth doesn't oppose fascism." "Fascism opposes him." "Yes, it's always somebody else's fault." "Stop it, will you?" "Just a little more sand." "So why were you dismissed from the radio?" "Just for fun?" "Maybe because my voice was not like it should have been:" "Solemn, belligerent, full of Roman pride." "I didn't have any Roman pride because I'm from Viterbo." "You have quite a sweet talk." "To be honest I think they did the right thing." "A shock." "Tricked you." "Drop dead." "Sorry, you scared me out of my wits." "What should she think about it?" "And that in my own house." "Come on." "I wanted to make you laugh." "I laugh my head off." "But the lamp has been fixed." "Fine." "Just send me the bill." "Those are all buttons?" "Did you make this too?" "Indeed." "Do you mind?" "No, it's magnificent." "Since the introduction of the zipper, we have to think up something for the buttons." "You are not funny at all." "Now suddenly you also have to go upstairs?" "Yes, in order to avoid the warden." "You could have given your opinion straight away." "You could have given your opinion straight away." "About what?" "The photo album." "What difference would that have been made?" "Everything." "I wouldn't have let you in." "How come?" "Are you so sure of yourself?" "Definitely." "That's not mine." "I don't talk to somebody who criticizes and ridiculizes everything." "You laugh about everything." "I have little reason to laugh." "So why aren't you laughing?" "You should have everything you want?" "A home, a husband, six children." "Why aren't you laughing?" "And it's forbidden to say 'lei'." "You have to say 'voi'." "You are doing it intentionally, saying 'lei' all day long." "Lei this and lei that..." "Did you leave?" "Thank goodness." "Couldn't he say goodbye?" "I won't say 'madam' anymore." "Only 'you'." "Finally you're laughing." "No way!" "Too bad." "According to me you're much more beautiful then." "I used to be maybe." "Peace?" "'Joke ends tragically. ' You have scratched me." "Serves you right." "What's wrong?" "I am fed up to the back teeth with your so called jokes." "I don't know what you had in mind, but you are mistaking." "Don't give me that look, because you understand perfectly well." "Antonietta, I swear I didn't have any mischief in mind." "Yeah right." "You embraced me coincidentally." "You men are all the same." "I was already expecting it for quite some time." "You were expecting it?" "From me?" "First The Three Musketeers, then coffee." "In your social environment it's quite different of course." "I'll do it alone." "No, at home I was also always helping." "Actresses, singers, announcers..." "That's why you have telephone." "Go away." "Go away, please." "I said 'please'." "You have to go." "When you embraced me I was particularly angry with myself." "Because because I am already looking at you the entire day." "You have to go." "I have never..." "Believe me." "It's the first time." "The first." "Gabriele, please say that it's important." "In your album it says somewhere:" "A man has to be husband, father and soldier." "I am not a husband not a father and not a soldier." "What do you mean?" "I didn't leave the radio because of my voice." "'Defeatist, unusable with depraved tendencies. '" "That is what they said." "I don't understand." "You understood perfectly well." "It is true." "What did you expect?" "Kisses, intimacies?" "That's what you were expecting the whole day." "That's what you do with a woman right?" "All men are the same after all." "Don't touch me." "You must make them feel it." "Isn't this the most important muscle?" "Don't touch me." "I am sorry, but you were mistaking." "I am not the guy you were hoping for." "I am a faggot." "That's how they call that." "At the billiard club they'd stick the cue in your bottom, if they would find out." "That's what they would do." "What do you know about that?" "Such a harmless little woman that had to marry, but ever so decent." "And then you say: 'It happened in a weak moment. '" "She's having herself jumped on the terrace but still she always has an opinion." "What do you know about that?" "What do you know?" "The warden hears it." "I'll call her." "Then they all know that the guy from the sixth is bent a faggot gay a poofter." "I am sorry." "Come in." "I was just making an omelet." "I even got engaged to somebody." "She was working at the radio." "Just to pretend." "We even went out for dinner, to the movies, so that everybody would see us." "We were both behaving like we were madly in love." "She was a good friend who wanted to help me." "But I was probably playing my part too bad." "One day I was called before the management and they said:" "You are not a part of the family anymore." "You are no longer member of the party." "I am member." "No, not anymore." "Because people like you cannot be a member of a party for men." "Then I tried to make a countermove with a medical certificate that I wasn't a homosexual." "That I am a normal person." "Did they believe that?" "Hell no." "Worse." "It was very stupid." "If you really aren't one, you don't walk around with a such a certificate." "And that's the worst." "You're trying to appear different from who you are." "They force you to feel ashamed, to hide yourself." "But to me you did say it." "With you I found the courage, because you are different from the rest." "Not true." "I slapped you." "Yes, but still you're here with me." "How do you make a living?" "I am sending the advertisements for a big firm." "I write the addresses on the envelopes." "I took that over from a friend." "He left one year ago." "He was exiled to Sardinia." "Was he subversive?" "Just as subversive as I. I waved him goodbye when he went aboard." "That was the last time I saw him." "You have such a beautiful handwriting." "Will you send me one as well?" "Very often I feel humiliated treated like a nobody." "My husband doesn't talk much to me, he gives orders." "Since our engagement we haven't laughed anymore." "He laughs outdoors, with other women." "Isn't he faithful to you?" "I thought you were happy." "Faithful." "To the mother country." "Those places where men go against payment." "They know him better there than in the office." "If only it would stick to that." "Last month I found a letter from a certain Laura a schoolmistress in the Via Ruggero Bonghi." "To date an educated woman." "That is as if a man says to his wife that she's an idiot." "I haven't been attending school for a long time." "And a letter like that one even when I loved him I never wrote him." "Because I am not able to." "You can do anything to a stupid person because there is not respect." "I think you're sweet, Gabriele very sweet." "The way you are." "The things you told make no difference to me." "That is very sweet of you." "I'm thinking about myself." "I like it when you touch me." "Strange I don't feel guilty." "On the contrary." "With him it was never like this." "I didn't know it could be like this." "And you?" "If you are like me, you can easily make love to a woman." "It's different." "It was nice, but it doesn't change anything." "That we got acquainted that I talked to you, that I was here with you, today of all days that was very important to me." "I will look at your window every day." "Just like this morning when I returned home." "I had to look at you all the time and I didn't get anything done." "And if they'll be gone again next week I only have to see you listen to you." "How was the parade?" "It was nice right?" "I heard everything on the radio." "They are returning." "I have to get home." "I heard everything on the radio." "Was it nice?" "How is Hitler like?" "Very handsome." "I heard everything on the radio." "I really enjoyed myself." "Was it nice?" "A historical day." "Definitely." "Did you see that fat general?" "That wasn't Hess." "He has a loony air." "All Germany was represented." "My feet hurt." "Have you gotten tired?" "No." "Everybody called:" "Duce, Duce." "He loved it." "But then he made a signal that we had to applaud Hitler." "Didn't notice that." "Because you were too far off." "You've really missed something, Antonietta." "Should we eat soup with a fork?" "What's wrong with you?" "A prophetic day." "Unforgettable." "And you witnessed it personally." "Later you'll be able to say to your children:" "On that day I was there." "I only had one bread roll." "What is that?" "My pom-pom." "Can I have the mortadella?" "Only a cold meal." "You didn't lift a finger." "It was a celebration wasn't it?" "You have only been sleeping." "We had most cannons." "More than America?" "They are good at making movies, but they're still shooting with arrow and bow." "The air force is most beautiful." "No, the navy." "Too bad there were no ships." "On the Via dell'Impero?" "Cut it out." "Hands off!" "Tomorrow there will be photo's for your album again." "Tomorrow you can cut photo's from the newspaper." "I sang myself hoarse." "Did you see that mounted band?" "Riding and playing at the same time." "The Führer's private corps." "He's taking that home as well." "Littorio eat with your left." "The Germans are marching better than we do." "Because it's tiring." "Ours are beautiful as well." "Did you see the alpine riflemen?" "But the Germans are more elegant." "They are our allies." "A good choice of us." "If war breaks out, we'll give them a hell of a time." "A day like today should be celebrated." "We'll call the seventh Adolfo." "No, not tonight." "Come to bed quickly." "Then we'll sort it out." "On the first Monday of April 1625 Meung, place of birth of the writer, was one big chaos as if the Huguenots tried a second Rochelle." "I'm almost ready." "We are not in a hurry." "At what time will the boat leave?" "In three hours." "Imagine yourself a Don Quichote of eighteen years old high cheekbones, a sign of craftiness." "All the worse for the young d'Artagnan..."