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School life is silently conditioned by the container in which students respond to institutionalized cultural solicitations. It is a very different experience crossing the marble threshold of a grand palace and ascending imposing staircases to reach majestic corridors and halls, or climbing the small stairs of an anonymous building to enter rooms similar to those where housewives cook. In the early nineteenth century, Genoa's elementary schools were placed in makeshift buildings, usually older oratories; after Italy's unification these buildings were no longer in tune with the image of an Italy that was becoming a nation, and were perceived as even less adequate when the myth of the strong nation pervaded the Umbertinian age. To help this myth become established, building policies and detailed rules on school spaces and furnishings were put in place in Genoa as well as in the rest of the Country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]