The Italian punishment of
internal exile, particularly as applied to
political prisoners during the
Fascist ventennio. The basic principle was that the victim was dispatched to a remote village, generally in the poor southern regions of
Basilicata,
Puglia or
Calabria with minimal facilities and zero communications, and ordered to remain there; it was pretty much impossible to conduct any form or economic or political activity, but quite a lot of writing was done. Almost every writer and politician of note in post-war Italy had undergone this treatment under the fascists; it was also to be the fate of
Benito Mussolini himself after the September 1943
coup, but he was to be rescued from his quarters in Isola del
Gran Sasso (in the
Abruzzi) by
SS paratroopers and taken north to found the
Republic of Salò.
The best known account of time spent in confino is Carlo Levi's highly readable novel Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ stopped at Eboli).