To their amazement, the unsuspecting Viennese citizenry awoke in a city awash with propaganda leaflets that D'Annunzio and his men had discharged from their planes. He declared that Italy had the capability to drop tons of bombs in the same manner he was dropping his manifesto, insinuating that the Austrian soldiers had been defeated at the River Piave. True or not, the Viennese were flabbergasted to learn that Italians, who had sunk three of their most powerful battleships, were also able tc fly aver heir city with shocking impunity. After the Peace Treaty, D'Annunzio also challenged Italy itself.

D'Annunzio became a bigger legend internationally when he led an autonomous military force into Fiume, in the territory of Trieste, which had been ceded tc the Slays. Believing that Italy should have been given that territory, he defied the Italian government and moved for the annexation of that territory. One of his colleagues was the renowned frogman, Luigi Rizzo. After having declared war on Italy itself, D'Annunzio finally was convi.d to retreat. Given safe passage to Lake Garda where he built a museum containing his writings and real examples of the military hardware he had used during the war, including the plane with which he flew over Vienna a. a MAS motorboat. A decommissioned military warship was disassembled, transported to Lake Garda and reassembled to the exact specifications of the original. Today, his Vittoriale museum remains one of the more popular tourist attractions of Lake Garda.