The Motoveleggiatore SS.2 (1936): Sergio Stefanutti’s First Canard, on Film
On 15 April 1936 the Luce newsreels showed an aircraft flying the wrong way round: Sergio Stefanutti’s SS.2, the first Italian canard.
interwar
Piero Portaluppi (1888–1967): The Architect of Milanese Discretion
If Milanese elegance between the wars has one author, it is Piero Portaluppi. He built power stations in the Alps,
Marcello Piacentini (1881–1960): The State Architect of Interwar Italy
No architect left a deeper mark on the public face of interwar Italy than Marcello Piacentini. A university city, a
Arturo Martini (1889–1947): The Sculptor Who Called His Art a Dead Language
Arturo Martini spent his life trying to make sculpture modern and ended it declaring the art dead. In between he
Giuseppe Terragni (1904–1943): The Architect Who Defined Italian Rationalism
Giuseppe Terragni died at thirty-nine, and in barely fifteen working years he became the defining figure of Italian Rationalism. He
Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863–1938): A Life from Pescara to the Vittoriale
Few Italian lives of the last century left as many marks on the map as Gabriele d’Annunzio’s. Poet, novelist, playwright,
A Stadium, an Aqueduct and a New Town: A Ferrara Rationalism RoadBook (1928–1939)
Ferrara modernised on its own terms between the wars. Alongside the old city, a new westward quarter — the Addizione
Blue Riband and White Sails: the Rex, the Amerigo Vespucci and Italy’s Interwar Sea
Italy’s interwar sea produced the fastest liner in the world — the Rex, Blue Riband 1933, sunk 1944 — and a deliberately archaic sailing ship, the Amerigo Vespucci of 1931, still in service today.
The Atlantic Squadrons: Orbetello, Rio, Chicago and the Formation Flights of 1930–1933
Twice in three years, formations of S.55 flying boats left the Orbetello lagoon to cross an ocean: Rio in 1931, Chicago and back in 1933. A memorial park in Tuscany and a contested Roman column on the Chicago lakefront still mark the route.