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hidden histories • d. medina lasansky
Hitler and Mussolini (accompanied by Joseph Goebbels, Giovanni Poggi and others) study a painting in the Pitti Palace during Hitler’s visit in 1938 (Photo: Life Magazine) Hitler at the Piazzale Michelangelo, Florence (Photo: Life Magazine)
next pages Arnold Bocklin, Isle of the Dead, 1883, 3rd version, oil on panel 150 x 80 cm., collection of the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin (Photo: Alte Nationalgalerie, public domain)
Adolph Hitler. In May of 1938 Hitler made a state visit to Rome, Naples and Florence. Mussolini met Hitler at the Santa Maria Novella train station on May 8th. From there they travelled in an open car accompanied by a motorcade with 19 other cars to various sites in the city. They were accompanied by the German-speaking Italian art historian, Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli who provided descriptions of what they were looking at. At the Piazzale Michelangelo, Hitler noted that the view reminded him of one of his favorite paintings, the Isle of the Dead painted by the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin in Florence in 1883 and acquired by Hitler in 1933. During the Florentine excursion, dinner was held at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi with more than 100 invited guests including members of the Gruppo Toscano. The meal included cream of vegetable soup, sole fillet, veal medallion with peas, chicken breast with asparagus salad, gelato, small pastries, large strawberries in orange juice, coffee, and Tuscan wines.The sites Hitler saw included: • Shrine of the Fascist Martyrs, Basilica of Santa Croce • view from Piazzale Michelangelo • Boboli Gardens • Pitti Palace • the Vasari Corridor • Uffizi Gallery • Piazza Signoria • Ponte Vecchio • Palazzo Medici Riccardi for dinner • Teatro Comunale for a performance of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra • Piazza Vittorio Veneto, for fireworks