CHICAGO E FASCISMO!
Topic: Architecture / Chicago
TAKOTRON FIELDTRIP!
Today our small elite research team searched for an odd Chicago secret: a monument to Fascism still standing in our fair democratic city! That's right. Here's our official press release. Just east of Soldier Field, along a bike/jogging path stands a Roman pillar presented to Chicago on behalf of Benito Mussolini at the 1933/34 World Exposition. It still stands there, evidence of an awkward alliance. A translation of its inscriptions reads:

THIS COLUMN TWENTY CENTURIES OLD ERECTED ON THE BEACH OF OSTIA THE PORT OF IMPERIAL ROME TO WATCH OVER THE FORTUNES AND VICTORIES OF THE ROMAN TRIREMES _____[illegible]_____ OF BENITO MUSSOLINI PRESENTS TO CHICAGO AS A SYMBOL AND MEMORIAL IN HONOR OF THE ATLANTIC SQUADRON LED BY BALBO WHICH WITH ROMAN DARING FLEW ACROSS THE OCEAN IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR OF THE FASCIST ERA

Perhaps you recognize the name Balbo--there's a Chicago street named after him (7th St). Naughty naughty, Chicago, in with the wrong crowd, apparently.