Menaggio
Lakeshore town where a deposed dictator's disguise unravelled on the road toward capture.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Menaggio on Lake Como covers one afternoon, April 26, 1945, when a convoy of trucks idled on the lakefront while a deposed Benito Mussolini waited to see who would still follow him. He had fled Milan the night before with Clara Petacci, chasing a rumor that Switzerland might take him in, and by the next day was gathering his last followers here, alongside a German anti-aircraft unit also pushing toward the border. Partisans under a commander known as Count Bellini had already sealed the roads ahead, and struck a blunt bargain: Germans could pass, Italians could not. The guide follows the convoy as it pulls out of Menaggio, tracing the same shoreline road that runs through town today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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