D annunzio 1986 film biography

On 7 August 1915, Gabriele d'Annunzio and Giuseppe Miraglia took off from Venice in a plane bound for Trieste, then still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, with a cargo of bombs and propaganda.

Miraglia, the pilot, was a 32-year-old army officer; d'Annunzio, in the passenger seat, 20 years older than his companion, was famous throughout Italy, Europe and beyond as a writer, libertine and rabid nationalist. He had a notebook with him, in which he jotted down his impressions of Venice from the air ("the twisting canals are green as malachite") and passed messages to Miraglia: "Would you like some coffee?"

Reaching Trieste, they came under fire.

D annunzio 1986 film biography

Miraglia brought the plane in low over the marina. D'Annunzio dropped bombs on the Austrian submarines and pamphlets (he'd written them himself) into the piazzas. Turning back, they realised one of the bombs had got stuck.