Paul Rouse

This was change that happened, a lot of change, but it happened through the 20s.

So you have by the end of the 1920s, 1928, Landro Ferretti, who is the head of the Italian Olympic Committee, talked about this idea of

using the movement to create courageous soldiers in wartime.

By 32, the Italians are parading at the Olympic Games in LA, wearing black shirts, and they did really well.

They came second in the medals table, which is a huge step forward.

And even in 36 in Berlin, the Italians came fourth.

So this is a movement that is really gathering momentum in terms of

Italian prestige on the world's sporting stage.

Probably the most famous person in the world in the 1930s was the world heavyweight champion, whoever that was at a particular year.

And Primo Carnera, the Italian boxer, won the world heavyweight championship in 1933.

And his fame was promoted through newsreels and through radio, which was then beginning to broadcast live fights and disperse them across the population, reaching into people's homes as well as in squares.

And of course, in cycling, you had the Giro d'Italia.

Cycling was the biggest sport in Italy in the 1930s.

And the Giro was hugely important.

So you have between that and the modern sport of motor car racing where Italian drivers, Italy isn't just staging races, it's sending out some of the best drivers in the world.

So you see the whole creation of an international sport

sporting presence for Italy, which had not previously been the case.

The story of the game on European soil is the story of incredible explosion across much of Europe in the 20s and in the 30s.

It was hugely popular, we'll say, in Hungary, in Austria.

But in Italy, it took off in the 1920s.