History
"Giovinezza" was composed by lawyer and composer Giuseppe Blanc in 1909 as "Commiato" (Italian for "farewell"). Blanc also wrote other Fascist songs, including The Eagles of Rome, the Imperial Hymn. Previously a Turin university graduation song, and popular among Italian soldiers during World War I, the song was called "Inno degli Arditi" (Hymn of the Arditi, a corps of the Italian Royal Army during World War I, whose members joined the fascist movement in large numbers). The hymn was further popularized by the mass rallies of Gabriele d'Annunzio in Fiume.
The version sung during the March on Rome was composed by G. Castaldo in 1921, using the original score by Giuseppe Blanc and words by Marcello Manni (beginning "Su compagni in forte schiere"). After the March on Rome, where it was sung, Mussolini commissioned Salvator Gotta to write the new lyrics, which were completed in 1924.
Gotta's version plays on fascist themes like youth and nationalism. Its reference to "Alighieri's vision" is an allusion to Dante Alighieri marking Italy's borders on the Quarnaro River, thus including the province of Istria, a territory granted to Italy after World War I.
After the capitulation of Italy in 1944, the Allies suppressed the hymn in Italy. At the time, Italy had no national anthem, until Il Canto degli Italiani was provisionally chosen when Italy became a Republic on 12 October 1946, only to be officially legislated on 17 November 2005. "Giovinezza" is currently banned in Italy, people have been arrested in the post-war period, just for singing it.
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