Brescello, Don Camillo's home town

(see related)(ANSA) - Rome, April 20 - A small town in the Po Valley whose council has been dissolved on charges it was infiltrated by the mafia is the fictional setting for the saga of Don Camillo, a character created by Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi.
    Don Camillo was based on the real-life Father Camillo Valota, a Roman Catholic priest, World War II partisan and concentration camp detainee.
    In his fictional version, Don Camillo is on very close terms with the crucifix in his town church, which speaks to him in the voice of a gently chiding Christ, and is forever at odds with Communist town mayor Peppone in postwar Brescello - which currently has a museum dedicated to the two characters.
    Guareschi's immortal squabblers, who often struck unlikely alliances, were played in several classic film comedies by Fernandel and Gino Cervi.