Tango and Rome
Chapter 1 of 2 · 1900–1989
The Quirinal and the Pope
A queen who loved it, a king who banned it and a pontiff shown two tangos.
Centro storico · Monti
In November 1913 a Dutch paper reported that Queen Elena of Italy had become a passionate admirer of the tango.1 Her husband, Victor Emmanuel III, banned it from the balls at the Quirinal Palace.23
A legend says that in 1914 Pope Pius X had a couple of the Roman nobility demonstrate the tango, judged it indecent, prohibited it and advised replacing it with the furlana, a traditional dance of his region.4 The Italian article says instead that the Pichetti, the Italian court dancing masters, showed Pius X a British tango to obtain the revocation of the ecclesiastical sanction.3
The music of these years, most danced first
What happened, and where
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