Distinguished people of Predappio

Adone Zoli was born on 16 December 1887 in Cesena, the town to which his Predappese father, a Post Office employee, had moved for work. Brought up in a strictly Catholic environment, Zoli spent his childhood between Cesena, Predappio, Foggia and then Bologna, where he completed his university studies, graduating in law in 1907, at the age of just 20. He began practising law in Genoa and then in Florence, where he settled and married his cousin Lucia Zoli. He took part in the First World War as a volunteer and on his return, he received a medal for valour and joined Don Sturzo’s Popular Party.
The advent of Fascism forced him to leave militant politics, although he continued to carry out clandestine activities in opposition to Mussolini’s regime, also assuming a prominent role in the ranks of the Tuscan Resistance, where he participated in the formation of the National Liberation Committee. In the post-war period, alongside Calamandrei and La Pira, he became a lucid and profound interpreter of the constituent spirit of the new Italian democracy: after the Liberation he became Deputy Mayor of Florence, in the elections of 18 April 1948 he was elected Senator of the Republic and, during the course of the legislature, became Vice President of the Senate (from March 1950 to July 1951). Re-elected in the following legislative term, he held prestigious positions in the Parliament and in his party, the Christian Democrats (DC). He was Minister for Grace and Justice in the seventh De Gasperi Cabinet and Minister for Finance in the government headed by Fanfani, while in February 1956 he succeeded Minister Vanoni as holder of the Budget Department.
In May 1957, following the resignation of the executive led by Antonio Segni, President of the Republic Giovanni Gronchi entrusted him with the task of forming the new government, which remained in office until the summer of 1958.
He became Prime Minister in May 1957, following the resignation of the executive led by Antonio Segni, and President of the Republic Giovanni Gronchi gave him the task of forming the new government, which remained in office until the summer of 1958.

In that difficult year as prime minister, Zoli also had to deal with the difficult issue of the burial of Benito Mussolini’s mortal remains in the crypt of the San Cassiano in Pennino cemetery. A delicate operation from a media point of view, carried out thanks to his direct role as Prime Minister. An act of human pity towards the ‘man from Predappio’, as fascist propaganda liked to define Mussolini, carried out by another man from Predappio, representative of democratic Italy. “My father was from Predappio but my mother was from Cesena. I was born in Cesena. But I am very fond of Predappio. I have a house there and some land. I think I am buried there’. This is how Adone Zoli replied to reporters who interviewed him about the composition of the new government. Meanwhile, in Predappio, in June 1957, the town council had unanimously voted to confer honorary citizenship on this important politician, recognising his moral nobility and correctness, willingness to dialogue and quick wit.