In the grounds of the estate sits the prow of the warship Puglia. It was gifted to D’Annunzio from the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in recognition of his activity during the First World War, when he led a group of fellow nationalists to seize and occupy the city of Fiume in 1919.

D'Annunzio was aligned with the Fascist movement and even wrote speeches for Mussolini: the pair were said to have a complicated relationship and rivalry. 'Il Duce' ('the duke' in Italian) first visited the estate in 1921 shortly after it had been seized as compensation for war damages from Henry Thode – a German art historian married to the granddaughter of composer Franz Listz. The dictator also partly funded the restoration of Vittoriale, supposedly as a way to keep the popular D'Annunzio out of Rome.

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