The human story of the Trentino politician who begins in the Austro-Hungarian territory, and through the Fascist prison and the CLN, comes to lead the country, humiliated and defeated, to make it reborn in the time of the cold war; to compete with international obstacles and opportunities and with the need to overcome the historic fence between Papacy and the secular state, to respond to the challenge of European political integration. A political lesson, from the dramatic events of the first half of the short century, which leads us to reflect on the challenges of the 21st century.