ABSTRACT
While the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) and, later, the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL) organised and ideologically manipulated physical education and sport for children and young people, and the Gruppi Universitari Fascisti (GUF) did the same for university students, the spare-time activities of workers were placed under the control of the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND – dopolavoro means ‘spare time’)’. 1 The OND took autonomy away from Italian workers, offering them in its place a range of rationalised and assisted leisure activities practically free of charge. Many working people were attracted to the OND’s clubs, through which they could not only train their bodies, but also buy goods, visit beautiful places and try out many other activities, even those previously reserved for the upper class. The OND seems to have become genuinely popular among Italian workers, of both sexes, many of whom enjoyed the pleasant sensation of being at the centre of the regime’s attention.
