Figure 1.--Here Italian children are attending a "campo solare" summr day camp in 1939. It was located in Caerano, a village about 60 km from Venice. The "M" they are forming, of course, stands for Mussolini.

The Balilla set up many summer camps. Quite a number od sleep-away were located at seaside sites with beaches. For children that didn't go the summer camps, the Balilla organized village and town summer day camps--"campo solare" (sunshine camp). The children spent the day together in open air wearing light clothing. Most had uniforms, but not their Balilla uniforms. They usually white rompers or shorts and caps. There seems to have been uniforms adopted locally rather than nation-wide. I don't have a lot of information about activities at the camps or just how popular they were with the children who attended. The camps were free, but i don't think that they were compulsory. The philosophy of "campo solare" was to let the children play and drill in the sunshine and fresh air as more as possible, wearing less clothing as possible. It was the inspiration after the War for the "colonia estiva".