union between the Roman god Janus and the nymph Camesena who is described as the Muse of Song, and is represented by Carducci as autochthonous Child of the Soil, and from whom the Italic race was born according to an extremely ancient legend (Macrobius). The theme is inspired by the rediscovery of original Roman sources, a discourse which permeated the fascist rhetoric of the period. The nationalistic undertones and Classical style were not accidental, in the wake of the tragedies Romano witnessed first hand during the First World War. Stylistically this group is both hard and synthetic but the gesture tender in the acting of hugging. One of Romano's last works was from a competition for a large commission which he won at the end of the decade for the Monument to the Italians Fallen in Africa (1938–39). Stylistically this piece is very similar to his other works of the period, emitting great strength and force. The work honors the soldiers who died in Italy's colonial conquests, including a tomb for an unknown soldier. It was intended for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia however with the outbreak of the Second World War the shipment was interrupted and the piece remained in storage. Later on in the 1950s the parts were put together in Syracuse, Sicily, under the emblematic title of "Monument to the Soldier and Worker" where it still stands today. This was a strategic port for the Italian military at the time when they departed for the colonies. The monument is composed of six statues, one is not original as it was lost in storage and as such was substituted by a replica of smaller dimensions. The marble frieze is a very distinctive feature of the piece. Following the signing of Pact of Steel between the Kingdom of Italy and Germany on May 22, 1939, Romano became publicly extremely critical of the regime, having advised it strongly against this alliance. He was then pursued by the regime which issued an arrest warrant for him and he went into hiding, first in the Tuscan countryside, on one of his estates where he was eventually denounced by one of his own farmers, but managed to escape and subsequently hid in the Vatican until the end of the war. In the meantime, his wife Dorothea hid and gave refuge in a secret space below the roof of their family home in Florence to a