Stresa 1935. The conference between Italy, England and France is on the front pages of all the main papers. The arrival of MacDonald, the British Prime Minister, Flandin, the French Prime Minister and the Duce with his retinue of hierarchies will upset the peaceful, provincial life of Sergeant Luca Gatti. A murder that seems simple to solve, the danger of an assassination attempt, a beautiful woman, the disappearance of a dead body and a second murder force the Sergeant to face complicated investigations for the first time. Luca will discover just how difficult and painful it can be to come to terms with the sense of duty on the one side and his heart and conscience on the other. At the end of this 5-day conference, which will forever be remembered in the history books, everything seems to go back as it was. Yet everything will be completely different.
THE STRESA FRONT
This was an agreement, designed to have an anti-Germany function, that was signed by the French Foreign Minister, Pierre Laval, the British Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald and the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, after the meeting between the three in the eponymous Piedmont town on Lake Maggiore, known as the Stresa Conference, held from the 11th to the 14th April 1935.
The purpose of the agreement was to reaffirm the Locarno Treaties and to declare that the independence of Austria “would continue to inspire their common policy“. The three parties also stated that they were ready to react to any future attempt by Germany to change or violate the Versailles Treaty. Mussolini was able to captivate the guests around him, arriving to the conference in a motorboat.
THE MUSKATEERS OF THE DUCE
They were a unit chosen by the Militia for National Security, which was founded by Mussolini on the 11th February 1923. The Musketeers were tasked with acting as the Lictors of the Insignia of the Duce’s command, relieving the guard service at Palazzo Venezia, attending the official parades of the Regime and providing the internal security service during the meetings of the Grand Council of Fascism. The corps was disbanded in 1940 to allow the musketeers to enlist and serve Italy in the Second World War.
