Sport

In the name of the Littorio, the Duce also regimented sport. The "new Italian" must be the synthesis of thought and action, book and musket, culture and sport. Away with "bourgeois softness": this was the motto that informed the training of young people in the twenty-years of the regime. This and other watchwords were inspired by vitalism, the celebration of physical endeavours, extolled in the futurism of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the derring-do of Gabriele D'Annunzio. And, of course, the regime mounted a massive programme of physical education. A special academy was set up to train physical education instructors. New gyms were built. Sport became a scholastic activity to which two hours a week were dedicated. In 1932 the Littoriali of Sport were introduced: athletic matches reserved to university athletes from the various Italian universities. These years also marked the commencement of major national competitions such as the Mille Miglia and the Giro d’Italia.