Italian leaders are holding observances on Liberation Day, which celebrates the end of the country's fascist dictatorship during World War II, with appeals against glorifying dictator Benito Mussolini.

The celebrations Thursday comes after fans of the Lazio soccer club performed fascist salutes and hung a banner that read "Honor to Benito Mussolini" before a match in Milan on Wednesday.

President Sergio Mattarella visited the memorial to the Unknown Soldier in Rome on Thursday after making an appeal against re-writing history.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte visited the Ardeatine Caves, the site in Rome's outskirts where 335 people were shot to death in 1944 by occupying German forces as a reprisal for an attack by partisans that killed 33 Nazi soldiers.

Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio visited a synagogue.