"Giuseppe Beretta was in his late teens when he made the pilgrimage to Lake Garda, with a crowd of students of the same age. At one point during his visit D’Annunzio appeared on a balcony to address his admirers, and with a theatrical flourish he asked his awed audience who had led this delegation of the youth of Italy. Giuseppe Beretta was pushed forward, whereupon D’Annunzio, in an uncharacteristic moment of largesse, tossed him a coin purse full of money...."

 

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"It was a moment that would remain with Giuseppe for the rest of his life and one to which he would return a generation later, when, as a successful, middle-aged industrialist patriot, he honoured the hero of his youth by adopting the triple-arrow emblem that is to be found around the Vittoriale in stained-glass windows and carved into the stone pillar that greets visitors to this villa.

 

 

Frequently appearing with the motto “Dare in Brocca” (“hit the bullseye”), it was one of the warrior poet’s favourite emblems, appearing everywhere from his stationery to the coachwork of one of his cars and, thanks to at encounter on the Gardone Riviera almost a century ago, it lives on in the products made by the world’s oldest industrial dynasty. " (...)

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