Board game:Monopoli

In 1936, soon after the introduction of Monopoly in America, its popularity soared. Parker Brothers licensed the game for manufacture at Waddingtons in England, for sales in the UK, and to other local game manufacturers in other parts of Europe. Soon the company's advertisements could honestly boast that the game was conquering the world. But the game was not really welcome in Communist countries or in Fascist Italy under the rule of Benito Mussolini during the 1930s. A clever Italian firm soon brought out its own version, titled Monopoli, with street names from Milan and Bologna, and three imaginary street names to pacify the Fascist regime. Mussolini's government accepted the game, and now the Italians could play their version of America's most popular game, and win just as Americans did.

Unlike most American Monopoly games, made inexpensive for the mass market, the Italian Monopoli game featured high quality construction. Only wealthier Italians could afford such luxury as a capitalist-style board game, not to mention the leisure time to play it.