My paper examines Il Giornalino della Domenica, one of the most renowned children’s periodicals in the first decades of the XX century and prototype of the modern periodical for children in Italy. Founded in Florence in 1906, Il Giornalino incorporated a vigorous national, and frequently nationalistic, ideology, aimed at consolidating the Unification of Italy (officialised in 1871) via an emphatic promotion of the cause of reclaiming Italy’s north-eastern ‘just borders’ (namely Trento, Trieste and the Dalmatian coast). This ideology was consonant with large segments of the public opinion, soon to advocate for ‘intervening’ in the First World War in order for the country to become complete. Its founder Vamba (pseud. of Luigi Bertelli, 1858-1920) was a nationalist and incisive political polemist who had published extensively on the national question for both a young and adult readership, and who did not hesitate to channel his interests into political action – for example, he took active part and became one of the most vocal supporters of the ‘Fiume enterprise’ of 1919-1920 designed to regain Rijeka (or ‘Fiume’, as it was known then in Italian) to Italy.

By forging links between Florence, cradle of Italian culture and language, and the north-eastern area, Il Giornalino aimed at cementing a sense of national identity. It did so by providing a forum that assigned large space to letters, contributions and news from Trieste and by recruiting many young Triestines into the ranks of its ideal ‘Repubblica dei Ragazzi’, an alternative form of government designed to put into practice the nationalist principles of its founder. Il Giornalino not merely educated its bourgeois readers to think of Italy as one, but also encouraged a whole generation of young men to ‘intervene’, including a number of Triestine ‘war writers’ who not merely contributed to the periodical, but also, in some notable cases, were to die in the trenches of the Great War. The inspiring principles of Il Giornalino carried resonances at a local level, where tolerance towards the autochthon Slovene community became increasingly a problematic issue; and also at a national level, in the light of the imminent onset of Fascism. After the death of Vamba in 1920, Il Giornalino continued to come out and finally embraced the Fascist ideology after Mussolini’s seizure of power in 1922.

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