Life in Italy 1950s to 1960s

The birth of television and La Dolce Vita

Rome 1950s La dolce vita

From a cultural viewpoint, the years after World War II began the transformation of Italy into the modern country we know today. Freed from the fascist regime of the past, many artists could now fully express themselves. Even though moral standards and censorship still remained very high, the country began a process that succeeded in creating the traditional laid back lifestyle of today’s Italy.

In 1954, RAI, the national television network, began broadcasting. This was a very important moment in Italian history. Italy has been divided in regions and micro-states for centuries. As a consequence, the Italian language was spoken with many differences from north to south. In many small, backwater villages, local dialects were the only spoken language. However, thanks to the TV, for the first time all Italians could listen and learn the official Italian language. It seems that television has been more effective than the schools in developing a sense of national language for Italians.

On February 3 1957 Carosello is born, any Italian will remember that, kids where usually allow to watch Carosello and then it was " A letto dopo Carosello"

While TV taught Italian to the Italians, a new society was beginning to arise from the ashes of war. Italy was mainly an agricultural country, but thanks to post war help, new industries began to rise. Italian creativity met the industrial world and the two blossomed into a new industrial revolution. Italy quickly began rebuilding its plants and offices, the devastation caused by the war were quickly mended. Many icons of Italian culture are born in these years: the Vespa scooter and FIAT's pocket cars, the legendary 500 among others.

In these economic boom years, Italy sees the rise of the borghesia over the old social classes. The pro capita income rose and more and more families were able to buy TVs cars, and even book vacations. Just a few years before this change, the average Italian traveled no more than 50km form his or her house, now they were starting to discover their own country.

La dolce Vita, Kirk Douglas

Attracted by a mild climate, a laid back lifestyle, the talented professionals and beautiful places, many foreigners began to discover Italy as a place for business or relax. The international jet set of powerful politicians, wealthy royals and A-list actors, converge on Italy. Cortina is the place to be in winter, while Capri, Rome and Sardinia the preferred choices for summer. Italian and foreign actors spend their days filming in Rome's Cinecittà and their evenings strolling in the city center and the famed Via Veneto. It's the beginning of la dolce vita.

La Dolce Vita, the sweet life, is an almost legendary era of modern Italian history for foreigners. It's the ultimate symbol of a laid back, luxurious life style but lasted a little over than a decade. Although it was over by the end of the 1960s, for many foreign lovers of the Italian lifestyle, la dolce vita never ended. Many foreigners actually call la dolce vita the percieved relaxed and slow Italian way of living. Living the dolce vita often means taking a break from your hurries and relaxing in some quiet village in the Tuscan or Umbria countryside, or strolling in one of the more quaint areas of Rome, like Trastevere, eating quality Italian foods, drinking fine wine and enjoying the mild climate.

Italians however, use the term in a stricter way, referring only to the years going from the end of the 50s to the late 60s and the beginning of political unrest that caused the "sessantotto". Years of luxurious, often excessive parties in rich villas or in the best restaurants in Rome, Milan or in the exclusive locations of Sardinia and Venice. Years in which wasn't uncommon to sit elbow to elbow with top movie stars of the time like Gregory Peck, Peter Sellers, Elizabeth Taylor and Anthony Quinn in the best Roman restaurants. During these golden years, these Hollywood giants chose the hotels around the legendary Via Veneto as a second home.

Music

We cannot separate Italy of the 50s and 60s from songs like : Volare, Sapore si Sale, Vengo anch'io, Fatti Mandare dalla Mamma, Azzurro, Nessuno mi puo' giudicare,Quando quando quando,Bandiera Gialla,Il ballo del Mattone....

Movies

The 50s and 60s are great years for movies and the Italian Cinema. The previous two decades saw Italian cinema forced to create idealistic and unrealistic movies during the fascist regime. The first break by Italian cinema called neo-realism (1945-1950) did not last long as the public got tired of this dark portrayal of life. However it would be Italian comedies, some very good comedies, that ruled the 1950s and 60s.

Besides La dolce Vita, this was a time of many great comedy movies like C'ervamo Tanto Amati, and La Grande Guerra. Great movies that depict life in the 50s like Poveri ma Belli, Pane Amore e Fantasia and Il Medico della Mutua. Many great comic actors still present in any Italian life such Toto', Gassman, Tognazzi, Manfredi, Sordi and even Franco e Ciccio represent this era, when Italian comedies were at their highest level.

Historical Notes: History of Italy from 1950 to late 1960s

In the peace treaty of 1947, few adjustments were made at the Italian and France border. The border area on the east was given to Yugoslavia and the region around the city of Trieste was announced as a free territory. The free territory which was under the jurisdiction of U.K and U.S forces was divided among Yugoslavia and Italy. Italy lost its imposing empire, except Somalia which was under the UN trusteeship ending in 1960.

Italy became the member of NATO and a supporter of the United States in the fifties, as a result the Marshall Plan helped restart the Italian economy. During these years Italy had simultaneously become a member for European Economic Community and then the European Union. Towards the end of fifties there was a remarkable economic growth which was named the "Economic Miracle", this term is still familiar in Italian Politics. In 1994, the elections were won by Silvio Berlusconi promising new "Miracle".

^{Poveri ma belli - A typical movie depicting the life in the 1950s}

The First Republic

Christian Democracy party gradually lost support, as society rationalized and the conventional values at its ideological center became less attractive to the population. North-East Italy, Central and rural regions in South Italy were the main support to the Christian Democracy, while the North-West region had less support due to large number of industrial working class. The regions of Umbria, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna were the only exception. Here the Communist party had received extensive support. This was due to the fact that the Mezzadria, a share cropping type of contract was used in these particular regions

The Christian Democracy party was actively supported by the Vatican, since they believed that it is a sin for Catholics to vote Communist. As a matter of fact, many communists stayed religious: Emilia was a region well known for both religious and communist persuasions. Don Camillo is described in the novels of Giovanni Guareschi, where Giovanni Guareschi has written about a village, Brescello where the residents of the village are faithful to the priest Camillo and communist mayor Giuseppe Bottazzi, who are violent enemies.

The Reforms

Various important reforms like fiscal and agrarian reform helped the nation enjoy great periods of economic growth. During this time a substantial amount of people shifted from the poor southern regions to the northern regions which were prospering due to their industries. This increased the violence between the old-established upper class workers and the new immigrants from the south, who were less qualified.

The Mafia

The mass destruction of 1963 which took place on the outskirts of Palermo killed seven policemen. Military officers were sent to the rescue after an anonymous phone call, a law of Anitmafia Commission was ruled out by the Italian Parliament in December 1962. This mass execution took place in the 1960s as the start of the first Mafia War, the intention behind this execution was Salvatore Greco the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission which was created towards the end of 1950s. The mafia fought with an intention to take over the profitable opportunities coming their way by the quick growth of the city, and the business of heroin to North America.

This cruel mafia war left 68 killed from 1961 till 1963; the final report was submitted by the Antimafia commission in 1976. The mafia had formed connections with the political world. Salvo Lima was the mayor of Vito Ciancimino and Palermo from the period of 1958 till 1964 and he was the judge for the public works, later he was referred as the "Sack of Palermo".

The intelligence agency "SIFAR" was changed to SID due to an aborted coup d'état, Piano Solo in 1965. The reason behid this change was to give authority to the Carabinieri and the head of this was General De Lorenzo.

The Socialist Party

The declining support to the Christian Democracy ultimately gave birth to the Socialist party in the administration. The Socialist party had changed its position from subordination within the Communists, to almost an independent party after the 1956 movements which took place in Hungary.

The option of increasing the parliament majority for the socialists became the key subject for political debate. The Catholics, reformists, Progressives and social-democrats supported this, while the right-wing forces sincerely opposed this. The notion was this change will definitely help the nation in modernization and create a modernized social-democracy.

During 1960 due to the attempt of the Christian Democrats to merge the Italian Social Movement with the Tambroni administration gave birth to violent riots and was defeated. The Italian Socialist party entered the administration in 1963.

The reformist drive was gone. During this time some essential changes went into practice, such as tax benefits in finance, division of high school and junior school and production and provision of electric power nationwide, The most important issues like mafia, social discrimination, imbalance of North and South remained unchanged.

Sessantotto

The difficult equilibrium of Italian society was challenged by a rising left-wing movement, in the wake of student unrest ("Sessantotto").

This movement had become a combination of various events as a result of revolts by out of work farmers, occupying of Universities by students, social conflict in the factories in the North. At the same time social advances of the sixties were rolled back by the conservative forces and a division of the military got involved in threatening the progressive political forces, number of left-wing activists were frustrated due to the social discrimination, and on the other hand the falsehood of guerrilla and the Chinese Socialist "cultural revolution" progressively encouraged the left-wing for violent movements. The communal protests, particularly the student movement had shaken Italy in 1969. This event led to the Fiat factory located in Turin being occupied. During the Battle of Valle Guilia" in March 1968 clashes took place at La Sapienza University in Rome. Mario Capanna was associated with the New Left and was also one of the figures in the student movement and the members of Autonomia Operaia and Potere Operaio.

Late 1960s

The late 1960s, early 70s was known as Opposti Estremismi and was later renamed as anni di piombo due to the shootings and bombings. A policeman named Antonia Annarumma was the first victim who was killed in Milan on November 12th 1969, during a left-wing protest.

Rome was hit by four bombs and the four monuments of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Vittorio Emanuele II, the Banca Nazionale dell' Agricoltural and Banca Commerciale. Later the bombing were known as Piazza Fontana bombing on December 12th 1969, which left 16 people killed and 90 inured.

By Andrea Nicolia & Paolo Nascimbeni

** Image of the Dolce Vita thanks to Rino Barillari