Accademia della Farnesina

[1] The institute had an essential aim: to train the Physical Education teachers of the Italian schools and the sport instructors of the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB).

However, the lack of youth leaders obliged Renato Ricci, president of the ONB, to partially change the aims of the institute.

During the course of study, students played many sports and gymnastic activities and attended various classes; for example, anatomy, physiology, first aid, traumatology, hygiene, psychology, Fascist law, philosophy, pedagogy, history of physical education, art, singing, French, and English.

[2] One year after its inauguration, the school changed its name to "Accademia fascista di educazione fisica" ("Fascist Academy of Physical Education").

The syllabi at the school were also changed starting in 1929; all the subjects, considered necessary in order to train from a political point of view the future leaders of the youth organizations, became treated as essential.

To become a student at the academy, it was necessary to pass a public selection and to demonstrate to be deserving from a moral, political, racial, personal and family point of view.

[12] On 30 October 1940 Riccardo Versari, who had been chancellor of the school since its foundation, left his seat to Nicola Pende, father of the Italian Somatotype and constitutional psychology and one of the scientists who wrote down the Manifesto of Race.

[14] When the war ended, many students, who couldn't finish the courses at the Fascist academies, asked to complete their training and to get the final degree.

[15] On 20 February 1951, the High Council of Public Education approved the regulation for the organization of the courses that took place in Rome from 1951 to 1954.