Italy’s royal family, the house of Savoy, was one of the oldest ruling families in the world before the monarchy was abolished by Italians at the end of the Second World War by way of punishment for the family’s support of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The family was then exiled to Switzerland, only able to return home after a ban on male heirs to the throne from entering the country was lifted in 2002.
But royalty in Italy dates back long before unification, with the Normans ruling Sicily at one time and then the Kingdom of Naples merging with the Kingdom of Sicily to create the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Needless to say, no monarchy is without the odd scandal here and there, with massacres and accusations of corruption and pimping among those tarnishing past royals and today's descendants.
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