Mussolini’s Final Days by Italy’s Lakes: From Garda to Como

From Lake Garda to Lake Como, from the Republic of Salò to Giulino di Mezzegra. The lakes accompanied the final days of Benito Mussolini‘s life. During the period of the Italian Social Republic, the Duce resided at Villa Feltrinelli in Gargnano, which has recently been transformed into a luxury hotel.

Photographs from the Garda era depict a gaunt, aged, and suffering Mussolini. With a perpetually uncertain gaze, the Duce presents the image of a man crushed by events, incapable of making decisions.

On September 12, 1943, Mussolini had been liberated by the Germans, who had taken him from Campo Imperatore, located beneath the Gran Sasso mountain, 150 kilometers from Rome. The mastermind behind that raid was Otto Skorzeny, an Austrian officer, who then took him to Germany aboard an Storch, the famous German ‘stork’ aircraft.

Beyond Mussolini’s rescue, his fame is also linked to the flight during which, on April 26, 1945, General Ritter von Greim managed to escape from besieged Berlin.

His return to Italy and the end at Giulino di Mezzegra

Mussolini stayed in Germany for about ten days. Then, on September 22, he signed the list of his Salò government and returned to Italy accompanied by some high-ranking Reich officials: his bodyguard, who remained with him until the last hours of the Repubblica di Salò.

In just under two years, another northern Italian lake shaped Mussolini’s fate. On April 25, 1945, after a meeting with the Clnai (the National Liberation Committee of Northern Italy), he left Milan heading towards Como.

These were frantic days, with various and futile attempts to seek refuge in Switzerland, which denied him asylum. Mussolini met his death at Lake Como, shot by partisans on Saturday, the 28th, at Giulino di Mezzegra, in the lake’s center.