*54 EDUCATION IN FASCIST ITALY
however, had to be co-ordinated with those of the O.N.D. It
was in fact in the field of sport and excursions that the O.N.D.
most impressed its character on the life of the Italian people.
While the great * professional' competitions were left to the
C.O.N.I., the O.N.D, reserved for itself the organizing of sports
facilities for hundreds of thousands of people. In all centres of
some importance the O.X.D. patronized the most popular sports,
especially those which appealed to the tastes of the local popula-
tion. It was difficult to say how many of the sporting enterprises
were due to the O.X.D., and how many would have continued or
started their existence; but it is certain that if ski-ing, lawn
tennis, and swimming became popular with thousands and
thousands of workers, this was largely due to the ample possibili-
ties open to such a big organization as the O.N.D. and to the
enthusiasm of some of its leaders. Popular sports, such as boccie
(Italian bowls), were given a new status by regular and numerous
tournaments on a provincial and national scale.
The contribution to touring, even though not so extensive, was
much more impressive than that to sports. Sundays and holidays
became days of travel for hundreds of thousands of people of all
classes, especially the poorer. Apart from multiplying the
number of short trips in the immediate vicinity of every town, or
to the towns from the villages of the countryside, the O.N.D.
facilitated, and sometimes created, mass travel to distant places,
with the running of treni popolari (excursion trains). It is true
that these trains were organized by the railway companies, but
it was the O.N.D. that urged the idea, and popularized it, and
often organized parties of week-end travellers ranging from ten
to several hundreds. Between 1935 and 1939 it can be reckoned
that an average of 100,000 people a year travelled on these special
very cheap trains, on visits to Naples from Milan, to the Dolo-
mites from Bologna, to Rome from Genoa, etc. Trains leaving
late at night or early in the morning carried these people to
* enjoy** a day in a town or a part of the country they had never
dreamt of being able to see at such low cost. Acquaintance with
the beauties of their own country, the destruction of sectionalism»
and parochialism, the bringing together of masses of people from
distant parts, and a new kind of relief to the hard and poverty-
stricken life of the Italian worker were the aims which the O.N.D.
claimed to achieve by this system; while health and happiness
were to be achieved through other kinds of excursions, such as
trips to the mountains, a day on the lake or the sea, and walks
into the countryside.
While the unity of the Italian people was being fostered by
much travel, the O.N.D. was entrusted with the task of reviving