Salò

Lake Garda seems to be ringed by dozens of picture postcard Italian villages! With Salò being one of the closest to our campsite, it made a good place to visit for a leisurely lunch of pasta and calzone :-)

Being a Monday it was pretty quiet in town and we didn't have to search high and low before finding an available table on the waterfront. Sitting there looking out over the water and the expensive looking boats, I imagined this must be what the Riviera looks like (only much bigger and much busier!).

Salò is reknowned for two things : being the birthplace of Gaspare da Salò, (Gasparo Bertolotti) the creator of the world's first violin; and for "inspiring" that controversial 1970s Italian film "Salo:120 Days of Sodom".

From 1943 to 1945 Salò was the de facto capital of Benito Mussolini's Nazi backed puppet state, the Italian Social Republic, also known as the Republic of Salò. The film focuses on four wealthy and corrupt fascists of the Mussolini era who kidnap a total of eighteen teenage boys & girls and subject them to months of extreme violence, sadism, sexual and psychological torture before finally executing them one by one. It was so controversial the film was banned in Australia in 1976, then made briefly legal in 1993 until its re-banning in 1998. Earlier this year the ban was again lifted. Don't think it is one that will be part of our DVD collection too soon !

Alli xxx