One century on, cult of Mussolini persists in Italy
One hundred years after he took power, the cult of Benito Mussolini persists in the small Italian town of Predappio, where his tomb draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Many are just curious but others are driven by nostalgia for a past that weighs heavily on the party tipped for victory in the general election on September 25 - Giorgia Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy.
A white marble bust of "Il Duce" adorns the crypt in the family chapel in the cemetery of this northeastern town, where Mussolini was born, while his sarcophagus is draped with the tricolour Italian flag.
"We will never forget you!" says one message in the gold book of condolences, while others say: "We will be reborn" and "Come back!"
One young visitor with a shaved head, visibly moved, brushed the tombstone with one hand before giving the Fascist salute to the man described on one of the ribbons in the crypt as the "father of the country".
Others who came with their families took a more nuanced view of the legacy of Mussolini, who took power after the so-called March on Rome in October 1922 before installing a dictatorship in 1925 that lasted until 1943.
"Mussolini was a great statesman. He...