Why go
Republic Day, postwar development and memorials to the Years of Lead all belong to the same national chapter. The contrasts help explain modern Italy’s institutions and city landscapes. Bologna’s station memorial, for example, points to a later period than the 1946 referendum and postwar reconstruction.
The full story
A referendum in June 1946 ended the monarchy and established the republic. Italian women could vote in that national decision, and a new constitution took effect in 1948. The postwar settlement also changed Italy’s borders and ended its colonial possessions. Aid and industrial growth supported an economic boom often called the Economic Miracle, especially through the 1950s and 1960s. Italy joined the European Economic Community as a founding member in 1957. Growth, however, did not remove political conflict. From the late 1960s into the early 1980s, the Years of Lead brought social unrest and violence by extremist groups. The kidnapping and killing of Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 and the Bologna station bombing in 1980 remain defining events of that period. Reading these chapters together helps make sense of the modern republic: the same decades that transformed industry and daily life also left sites of remembrance. The republic’s story is best approached through specific places and dates rather than through a list of successive governments.