He walked through the cheering crowd in the grand square designed by Michelangelo, acknowledging the adulation of the people, occasionally touching the brim of his bowler in salute. A choir of students broke into a political anthem and just as he turned to view them a small and dishevelled woman stepped out of the crowd, pointed a small pistol at his head and, from point-blank range pulled the trigger.
That movement of the head may have changed history. Had the bullet hit the target square between the eyes, and not just clipped Benito Mussolini’s nose as he turned away, then he might never have been an inspiration to Hitler and what followed would have been different, although no doubt just as evil.