history and myth united, and a miracle if you like, because that evening bartali got a phone call at his hotel. in a bad mood, dubious, he didn't want to answer. but someone whispered that it was alcide de gasperi, his old friend from catholic action, now parliamentary president, who told him that palmiro togliatti, secretary-general of the communist party, had been shot at and had survived by a miracle. the situation in the peninsula was very tense amid the ravages of the cold war. italy needed bartali to do what he best knew how to do, to win stages.