Teglio on Film

I’m blogging every day in the run-up to the US publication of Daughter of Genoa. Today’s post is something really special.

A while ago, regional Italian news network TGR Liguria shared part of a historical video interview with Massimo Teglio. Here, many years after the events of the occupation, we see Teglio walking around the familiar caruggi (alleys) of his native Genoa and talking about various details of the DELASEM forgery operation.

These include how he procured false stamps for ID cards, and how he forged a baptismal certificate for the future cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, who was in mortal danger for his opposition to Fascism and his work to protect Jews.

Teglio is older here than he is in the narrative of Daughter of Genoa. But his wry intelligence, his presence and his great sense of style are all beautifully evident. I haven’t been able to embed the video, so please click on the seaplane to watch it.

Macchi M.70 seaplane. Reproduced from Aero Digest Magazine Vol.16 No.6, June 1930, via Wikimedia Commons.

Daughter of Genoa is published in the US on December 9, 2025, complete with very dashing hero.