in order to propose her as an antidote to the alleged licentiousness of Italian youth following WW2.
World War II? And
just Italian youth?
The truth is, from the invasion of Italy in 1943 until well after the war ended, Italy suffered a complete moral collapse, during which everyone and everything was for sale--including the virtue of otherwise respectable Italian matrons, who were reduced to selling their favors for a carton of C-rations or a couple of packs of cigarettes.
The VD rate among American troops in Italy reached an astounding 100 cases per thousand soldiers in December 1943, which forced Fifth Army command to strictly regulate prostitution and run its own approved and inspected bordellos.
The center of the problem was the city of Naples, which was the only major city in a secure rear area, and the only place where U.S. troops could go for R&R. But, after 5 June 1944, the same problem irrupted in newly-liberated Rome. When the Allies finally overran the whole country in May 1945, the sex trade flourished on a grand scale and continued even after the end of the war, simply because there was no food, no work, and the lira was worthless. Only with the restoration of a (sort of) functioning Italian economy did things go back to "normal".
