126 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
organized expeditions to several hundreds of places in
Tuscany, some of them very far off. The Parmafascio sent
men to Reggio Emilia, Ferrara, Modena, Milan, Spezia,
various Tuscan centres, and even to Trieste and Fiume.
Even ihefasci in smaller centres had plenty of mobility and
initiative. To take one example out of several hundred,
that of Poggio Rusco (Mantua), apart from provincial
expeditions, shared in expeditions to Crevalcore (Bologna),
Pozzolengo, Desenzano and Rivoltella (Brescia), Peschiera
and Nogara (Verona), and to Bologna and Verona in May
1921. Later it went as far as Parma, Bolzano and Trente.
A very small fascio in the province of Mantua, according to
Chiurco : £ Took part in innumerable expeditions and its
activity is proved by its expenditure of 300,000 francs on petrol.'
On the other hand there is hardly one case of a socialist
raid on fascist headquarters, or of anti-fascists rallying to a
place threatened by squadristL The pre-war socialist move-
ment and its post-war successor had led to the formation of
hundreds of little republics, socialist oases with no inter-
communication, like medieval cities without their ramparts.
Italian socialism was only a conglomeration of thousands
of local ' socialisms J, greatly handicapped by municipal
exclusiveness and the absence of fully awakened national
consciousness. Fascism also managed to adapt itself to
local surroundings, but had one great advantage over the
working-class movement : its powers of transportation and
concentration supported by military tactics. The sixty-
three communes of Rovigo, Matteotti's province, all held by
the socialists, succumbed one after another without ever
attempting to unite and post superior forces at the danger-
points. The bells were never rung, as in the Great Revolu-
tion, to give warning to the peasants. In the Po valley the
advent of the terror only increased isolation. Thirty, fifty
armed fascists, as they came to each district, were too strong
for the local labourers. They were almost always arditi,
ex-soldiers, led by officers ; homeless, as men at the front,
they could live anywhere. The labourers clustered round
their People's House, like medieval cottages round a castle,
but though the castle protected, while it mulcted, the
village, the People's House needed protection. The