Italy faces calls to come to terms with its dark wartime past 80 years after invasion of...

For decades, Italians liked to think that their soldiers behaved with decency and compassion during the Second World War, in contrast to the atrocities carried out by their German counterparts.

It was a comforting image that was perpetuated by popular culture, including the award-winning 1991 film Mediterraneo about a platoon of hapless soldiers stranded on a tiny Greek island who spend their days playing football with urchins, seducing the local women and swimming in the Aegean.

But it was a myth, the result of collective amnesia and wishful thinking.