Ines Donati

Ines Donati (June 8, 1900 in San Severino Marche – November 3, 1924 in Matelica) was a political activist and a supporter of the first wave of Italy's Fascist movement.

[7][9] The following year, during the 1921 Italian General Election, Donati participated in the civil voluntary service and created propaganda for the Fascist national candidates.

[3] On February 18, 1921, at the Caffè Aragno in Rome,[2] near the Montecitorio Palace, the Deputy of the Italian Socialist Party, Alceste Della Seta,[10] was beaten, the second attack that he suffered.

[3] In 1921 she received what Fascists would later call her "battesimo del fuoco" (baptism by fire) at Ravenna, the location of a nationalist congress; Luigi Federzoni described her as "fearless, standing between the whistle of bullets".

[3] Donati was one of only several women who joined the Fascist March on Rome;[16] After reaching Ancona, and possessing two pistols,[17] she took a train to the capitol, and personally met Mussolini.

[3] In 1923 she applied to join the paramilitary Blackshirts (Voluntary Militia for National Security), created that year; on March 4, Mussolini responded: "I have known of her fame for a long time and know that she is a fierce Italian, an indomitable fascist".

[3][18] Her reputation was used in propaganda by the Fascists however, and on the request of Achille Starace,[19] Donati's body was exhumed on March 23, 1933, and reburied at the Chapel of Heroes at the Verano cemetery in Rome.

[3] On October 17, 1937, a bronze statue of Donati was dedicated, designed by Rutilio Ceccolini and sculptor Luigi Gabrielli, in the vicinity of the square San Severino Marche.