The October Martyrs of Lanciano

Heroic group of partisans earned Gold Medal for Valour

A statue in the town of Lanciano honours
partisan leader Trentino La Barba

The town of Lanciano in Abruzzo today and every October 6 remembers the 23 citizens killed by German troops on this day in 1943 after one of the most celebrated revolts of World War Two against the occupying Nazi forces.

The group became known as the Martiri ottobrini di Lanciano - the October Martyrs of Lanciano. Their deeds were recognised by the postwar Italian government with the award - to all the citizens of the town - of the Gold Medal for Military Valour, and there are a number of monuments in the town that commemorate the event and the participants.

As well as 11 partisan resistance fighters, another 12 Lancianese who fought alongside them were killed by the Germans. The leader of the partigiani group, a 28-year-old former soldier named Trentino La Barba, was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Valour in his own right. Three others were honoured with Silver Medals.

Lanciano - 22km (14 miles) southeast of the city of Chieti and about 30km (19 miles) from the coastal resort of Pescara - had the misfortune to be one of the key municipalities close to the Gustav Line, one of the major defensive lines established by the Germans to counter the Allied invasion of the Italian peninsula.

As such, it was in the line of fire for many months, over which time around 500 civilians were killed in the bombardments that regularly took place.  The citizens of Lanciano also found themselves often deprived of food and supplies that instead went to the German military.

The Torri Montanare were an important
strategic capture by the partisans

The uprising of October 6 followed the torture and killing of La Barba in the centre of Lanciano in full view of local people.

One of the founder members of the Gran Sasso resistance group, La Barba - emboldened by news that Allied troops had landed at Termoli, just 72km (45 miles) away from Lanciano - had stolen weapons from a Carabinieri barracks on October 4, hid them in a cave at nearby Pozzo Bagnaro, just outside the town, and the following night launched an attack on a German column.

His guerrilla group entered the town at Porta San Biagio, a gate in the ancient walls, setting fire to some German vans, but German reinforcements arrived and La Barba was captured. He was interrogated and tortured, then taken to the centre of the town, where he was shot and his body hung from a tree, which the Germans hoped would deter the local population from further insurgence.

Instead, as the remainder of La Barba’s group fought on and occupied a number of strategic points, including the Torri Montanare in the ancient walls, many local people joined the fight.  A number of partisans died in a battle near Porta Santa Chiara, but the rest of the brigade was able to move into the historic centre.

The Piazza del Plebiscito, where
Lanciano's liberation was celebrated

Ultimately, as fighting continued, 11 partigiani and 12 other citizens were killed, as well as 47 German soldiers. Shops and arcades on Corso Trento and Trieste, at the commercial heart of the town, were burned down in acts carried out by the Nazis in reprisal. The clashes halted after Monsignor Tesauri, the local bishop, organised a summit at which the Germans accused the town’s mayor of inciting the uprising, but eventually an agreement was reached.

In any case, the German divisions were soon occupied with fighting Allied troops, who were approaching ever closer to the Gustav Line. Lanciano found itself bombarded repeatedly, with many historic buildings damaged or destroyed.

It was finally liberated on December 3, when sections of the 8th Indian Division and the 78th English Division, part of the British 8th Army fighting the important Battle of the Sangro River, arrived at the convent of Sant'Antonio di Padova. 

The Indian troops, accompanied by some local Italian officials who had come out of hiding on their arrival, marched triumphantly along Corso Trento and Trieste to Piazza Plebiscito, the town’s main square.

The active participation of Lanciano’s citizens in the Italian Resistance was recognised in 1952, when Lanciano was awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour by President Luigi Einaudi. 

In the 1970s, a commemorative monument was created at Piazzale VI Ottobre at the beginning of Via Ferro di Cavallo, in memory of the martyrs, while in 2016 a statue by the sculptor Nicola Antonelli was erected in Largo dell'Appello, depicting Trentino La Barba.

The Diocletian Bridge and
bell tower of the Basilica

Travel tip:

Situated about 10km (6.2 miles) from the port of Ortona on the Adriatic coast, Lanciano sits on a group of hills rising to about 265 metres (869 feet) above sea level. Formerly the Roman city of Anxanum, Lanciano has another claim to historical fame as the site of what is recognised as the first Eucharistic Miracle of the Catholic Church, which took place in the eighth century, when a monk having doubts about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist - also known as Holy Communion - found when he said the words of consecration at Mass that the bread and wine changed into flesh and blood.  Lanciano today has a number of churches, including the 17th century Basilica Santa Maria del Ponte, named after the adjoining Ponte Diocleziano - the Diocletian Bridge - a Roman relic from the late third century.  Panoramic views can be had from the two Torri Montanare, which used to form an important part of the town’s mediaeval defensive walls.

Part of Ortona's Castello Aragonese, the coastal
town's dominant historic feature

Travel tip:

Nearby Ortona, which can be found about 22km (14 miles) south of Pescara along the Adriatic coast and about 26km (16 miles) east of the provincial capital Chieti, is dominated by a huge 15th century Aragonese castle, a legacy of another major battle when Ortona came under heavy attack by the Venetian navy in 1447. The castle has been renovated and visitors can reach it by walking along the Passegiatta Orientale, which looks out over the coastline. Ortona’s Cathedral of Saint Thomas contains remains of Saint Thomas the Apostle, which were brought to Ortona by sea in the 13th century more than 1,200 years after his death in India.  Ortona was also badly damaged in World War Two, the port being the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Allies’ Italian Campaign a short time after Lanciano was liberated. Ortona has a museum dedicated to the December 1943 battle.

Also on this day:

1888: The birth of wartime nurse Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin

1935: The birth of wrestling champion Bruno Sammartino

1943: The birth of football coach Ottavio Bianchi

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Camillus de Lellis - saint

Reformed gambler who became devoted to caring for sick

Camillus de Lellis, depicted in a French
church, was a reformed gambler

Camillo de Lellis, a gambler and streetfighter who reformed his life and eventually set up a religious order to tend the wounds of soldiers on the battlefield, died on this day in 1614 in Rome.

He was made Saint Camillus de Lellis by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746. Nowadays he is recognised as the patron saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses and physicians. Sometimes his assistance is also invoked by individuals with gambling problems.

The Order of Clerks Regular, Ministers of the Infirm (M.I), better known as the Camillians, is seen as the original Red Cross on account of an incident during the Battle of Canizza in 1601, when a tent containing all of the Camillians’ equipment and supplies was destroyed in a fire.

Among the ashes, the red cross from the back of a religious habit belonging to one of the Camillians was found to have survived. It became known as the Red Cross of Camillus.

The Order’s activities eventually extended to caring for the sick generally, particularly during outbreaks of Bubonic plague. They established a presence in hospitals in Naples and Milan and in time the Camillians ran hospitals of their own.

Images of Saint Camillus often
show him caring for the sick

It was on an inspection tour of hospitals around Italy that he fell ill and died. He had suffered periods of illness most of his adult life, mainly on account of a leg wound suffered while serving in the Venetian army, which he had joined as a young man.

Born in 1550 in Bucchianico, a small town in Abruzzo, about 30km (19 miles) inland from what is now the coastal resort of Pescara, De Lellis had a difficult upbringing. His father, an officer in both the Neapolitan and French armies, was seldom at home, and his mother found his violent tempers hard to control.

After she died in 1562 he was looked after by relatives but received little affection and his violent nature led him into many street fights. He was tall for his age and at the age of 16 he decided to follow his father’s lead and take up military service.

Fighting for Venice in a war against the Turks provided him with an outlet for his aggression, but not for his parallel fixation, with gambling. On his discharge from the Venetian army at the age of 25 he had nothing, having gambled away his savings, the weapons he owned and virtually every other possession, save for the shirt on his back.

He travelled south to Manfredonia, on the coast of Apulia, 35km (22 miles) north of Foggia, where he was taken on as a labourer at a Capuchin friary. His temper still frequently got the better of him, and he continued to gamble, but the guardian of the friary eventually persuaded him to mend his ways.

The church of St Mary Magdalene in Rome

De Lellis hoped to become a friar himself but was denied admission to the order of Capuchin friars because of his leg wound, which was deemed incurable. He decided to move to Rome, where he entered the San Giacomo Hospital, which cared for incurable diseases, at first as a patient, and then as a carer.

Feeling that the care given to the sick in the hospital was generally inadequate, he invited a group of pious men to express their faith by caring for patients at the hospital and determined that he would establish his own religious community in order to follow what he now felt was his calling in life. To do so, he took up seminary studies so that he could seek Holy Orders and was ordained as a priest in 1584.

Thus he was able to establish the Camillians, who were granted the status of Congregation in 1586 and as an Order in 1591, assigned to the church of St Mary Magdalene in Rome, where his remains were entombed after his death. 

His name is today honoured around the world in churches, hospitals, care facilities and charitable groups.

Church of San Camillo de Lellis in Rome

Travel tip:

The church of San Camillo de Lellis is on Via Sallustiana in Rome, a short distance from Via Vittorio Veneto. It was built under Pope Pius X, with construction under the architect Tullio Passarelli beginning in 1906. It was consecrated and made a parochial church in 1910. In 1965, Pope Paul VI elevated the church to the status of minor basilica. 

The hilltop town of Bucchianico in Abruzzo

Travel tip:

Bucchianico, where De Lellis was born, is typical of many charming small towns in the Abruzzo region. Located on top of a hill, it offers offers a beautiful panorama that stretches from the mountain peaks of the Majella to the coast line of the Adriatic Sea. Not well known among tourists, it is a medieval town that represents an ideal retreat from the chaos and traffic associated with bigger, bustling urban centers of the area. It is well known for the annual celebrations of the Festa dei Banderesi, a historical commemoration of the victory against the Invasion of Teate, a nearby city today known as Chieti.

More reading:

Alberto Marvelli - the Good Samaritan of wartime Rimini

Why Padre Pio is one of the most popular saints in history

The nurse who was made a saint after being stabbed to death by a patient

Also in this day:

1902: The dramatic collapse of St Mark's Campanile

1948: The leader of Italy's Communists shot and wounded in Rome


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Paolo Tosti – composer

How a poor boy from Abruzzo became an English knight

Paolo Tosti

Paolo Tosti, the composer of the popular Neapolitan song, Marechiare, died on this day in 1916 in Rome.

Many of the light, sentimental songs he composed were performed by the top opera singers of the time and are still regularly recorded by the stars of today.

At the height of his career, Tosti was singing professor to Princess Margherita of Savoy, who later became the Queen of Italy. He then went to live in England, where his popularity grew even more.

He was appointed singing master to the British Royal Family and was eventually knighted by King Edward VII, who had become one of his personal friends.

Born Francesco Paolo Tosti in Ortona in the Abruzzo region, the composer received an early musical education in his home town and then moved on to study at the Naples Conservatory.

His teachers there were so impressed with him that they appointed him a student teacher, which earned him a small salary.

Ill health forced Tosti to return to Ortona, but while he was confined to bed, he began composing songs.

Once he had recovered from his illness he moved to live in Ancona where, it is said, he was so impoverished that he had to exist on stale bread and oranges.

Nellie Melba, the Australian opera singer,
performed a number of Tosti songs

When Tosti moved to Rome his fortunes improved after he met the pianist and composer Giovanni Sgambati, who became his patron.

Sgambati arranged for him to give a concert at which Princess Margherita of Savoy was present. She was so impressed she appointed him as her singing professor and later made him the curator of the Italian Musical Archives at the court.

Soon after arriving in London, Tosti became a celebrity and was invited to the fashionable drawing rooms and salons of the time. After being made singing master to the Royal Family, his fame grew even more.

One of his songs, For Ever and For Ever, became a hit in England overnight. His publishers are said to have paid him a substantial retainer for producing 12 songs a year for them afterwards.

Tosti is particularly remembered for his collection of Abruzzo folk songs, Canti popolare Abruzzesi, but he also wrote many Neapolitan songs.

The Australian opera singer Nellie Melba recorded his song, Mattinata, and the Swedish star, Jussi Bjorling, recorded his song, L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra.

Tosti joined the Royal Academy of Music as a professor and then became a British citizen. He received his knighthood in 1908.

Tosti returned to Italy in 1913, where he died three years later in Rome.

His former home in London, 12 Mandeville Place, Marylebone, which is now the Mandeville Hotel, bears a memorial plaque to him, which was unveiled in 1996.

The coastal town of Ortona, where Tosti was born

Travel tip:

Ortona, where Paolo Tosti was born, is a coastal town in the province of Chieti in Abruzzo. It became known as ‘Little Stalingrad’ after it was fiercely defended by German soldiers fighting against Canadian soldiers in 1943, who were trying to take the port on behalf of the Allies during the Second World War.

Hotels in Ortona by Hotels.com

Travel tip:

Ortona now has a musical institute dedicated to Tosti, Istituto Nazionale Tostiano, which is in Palazzo Corvo in Corso Matteotti. It was founded in 1983 to commemorate the life and works of Tosti and other musicians from Abruzzo. There is a museum with Tosti rooms, Sale Tosti, recreating the environment in which he composed his music, using his own furniture, pictures and objects. For more information visit www.istitutonazionaletostiano.it.

More reading:

Cesare Andrea Bixio - songwriter whose legacy of classic songs included Mamma and Vivere

Enrico Caruso - great tenor began his career singing Neapolitan songs

Teatro San Carlo - the world's oldest opera house

Also on this day:

1946: The birth of dress designer Gianni Versace

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Saint John of Capistrano

Patron saint of lawyers and chaplains

St John of Capistrano as
depicted by the German-
Hungarian artist Karoly Lotz

The feast day of Saint John of Capistrano (San Giovanni da Capestrano) is being celebrated today in Abruzzo and is marked by Catholics in the rest of Italy and the world.

The patron saint of the legal profession and military chaplains, St John is particularly venerated in Austria, Hungary, Poland and Croatia as well as in different parts of America.

St John was born in Capestrano, about halfway between L’Aquila and Pescara in the Abruzzo region of Italy, in 1386.

He studied law at the University of Perugia and was then appointed Governor of Perugia by King Ladislaus of Naples.

When war broke out between Perugia and the Malatesta family in 1416, John was sent to broker peace, but ended up in prison.

While in captivity he decided not to consummate his recent marriage but to study theology instead.

He entered the Order of Friars Minor at Perugia in 1416 and a few years later began preaching all over Italy as a Franciscan friar.

He was particularly effective in Germany, Austria, Croatia and Poland and, because the churches were not big enough for his audiences, he had to preach in public squares.

St John's willingness to lead troops into
battle saw him dubbed 'the Soldier Priest'

Unhindered by such constraints as apply today, he preached against Jews, encouraging cities to expel their Jewish population, and wrote many tracts against heresy, while helping to reform the Franciscan Order.

At the age of 70, St John was sent by Pope Calixtus III to Germany to preach against the invading Turks. He moved on to Hungary and gathered together enough troops to march into Belgrade, which was under siege to the Turkish forces.

Although by then old and frail, St John managed to lead a contingent into battle, earning the nickname ‘The Soldier Priest’.

He survived the battle but fell victim to the Bubonic Plague and died on October 23, 1456 in Ilok in Croatia.

Nearly 200 years later, John was made a Saint and his feast day was fixed for March 28. But in 1969, Pope Paul VI moved his feast day to October 23, the day of his death. There are Catholic missions in California and Texas named after him and there is a statue of St John in Hungary and a monument to him in St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

Capestrano commands a hilltop location in Abruzzo

Travel tip:

Capestrano, where St John was born, is a small town in the province of L’Aquila in Abruzzo. It is within the area of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park. The Benedictine Abbey of St Peter ad Oratorium is on the bank of the Tirino river, six kilometres from Capestrano. It was originally built in AD 752 as part of a monastery. There is also a 13th century castle on the hill above the river and the lake of Capodacqua, which contains the submerged ruins of mills.


Travel tip:

Perugia, where St John was Governor, is the capital city of Umbria and is well known for being a University town, with its own 14th century University of Umbria, the popular University for Foreigners (Universita per Stranieri), which hosts about 5,000 students a year, some smaller colleges and institutes and the Music Conservatory, which was founded in 1788.

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Bruno Sammartino - wrestling champion

How a sickly kid from Abruzzo became king of the ring

Bruno Sammartino

Bruno Sammartino, who found fame as a professional wrestler in the United States, was born on this day in 1935 in Pizzoferrato, a village in the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region.

Nowadays he lives in Ross Township in Pennsylvania, about six miles north of the city of Pittsburgh.

Sammartino held the title of world heavyweight champion under the banner of the World Wide Wrestling Federation - now known as World Wrestling Entertainment - for more than 11 years in two reigns. The first of those, spanning seven years, eight months and one day, is the longest any individual has held the title continuously since it was first contested in 1963.

At his peak in the ring, Sammartino weighed in at 265lbs (120kg), yet it was something of a miracle that he survived his childhood.

Sammartino grew up in a mountainous region of Abruzzo now known as the Majella (or Maiella) National Park, still populated by bears, wolves and wild cats.  Life was tough, especially during the harsh winter months. He was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters, four of whom did not make it into adulthood.

It became tougher still during the Second World War, when the area came under German occupation. His father, Alfonso, was already in Pittsburgh, having left to find work in the steel industry. Fearing capture, his mother took Bruno and his surviving brother and sister to hide on the top of a mountain above the town, often going days without food.

The Neapolitan singer Mario Trevi gets a lift
from world champion Sammartino in New York

Bruno returned to the area for the first time six years ago, at the request of a friend who was making a television documentary, and recalled that his mother, Emilia, would have to sneak back into the town to obtain food and supplies, the journey there and back taking all day.

There was always the danger she would be spotted by German soldiers and Bruno said that as the evening approached he would sit on top of a rock, watching the path down the mountainside, anxiously waiting for her to return.  She was captured once but escaped, suffering a bullet wound to her arm but continuing the climb regardless.

Bruno himself suffered serious health problems, including a bout of rheumatic fever.  Treating him with hot blankets and leeches, Emilia somehow nursed him through.

As a result, though, when the opportunity came to join his father in Pittsburgh in 1950, he was a somewhat sickly 14-year-old, weighing only 90lb (41kg).

Unable to speak much English, he found himself picked on and bullied at school and it was this, indirectly, that led him on his chosen career path.   Determined to build himself up physically, he took up weightlifting, at which he became so good he narrowly missed out on selection for the United States team at the 1956 Olympics.

Sammartino addressing fans in 2014 alongside a more recent
wrestling favourite, Paul Levesque - better known as Triple H

He made money competing in bodybuilding contests and performing strongman stunts. Then, in 1959, he was invited to try out at professional wrestling by a Pittsburgh promoter, who saw Sammartino as a competitor likely to attract interest in his shows among the local Italian community.

Sammartino made his professional debut in December 1959 and within a year was appearing at Madison Square Garden in New York.  He became world champion in 1963. His fame took him all around the world and he became so popular that when he eventually surrendered the title for the first time at Madison Square Garden in 1971, the arena fell into a stunned silence, so quiet that Sammartino momentarily thought he had lost his hearing.

He regained the world title in 1973 and retained it this time until 1977, after which he continued in the ring for another 10 years.  After retiring he remained in professional wrestling as a media commentator and was inducted into the sport's Hall of Fame in 2013, the ceremony performed by his friend, the movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He married his wife, Carol, in 1959. They have three sons and four grandchildren and have lived in Ross Township since 1965.

UPDATE: This article was written in October, 2016. Sadly, Bruno Sammartino passed away in 2018 at the age of 82.

Shrouded in low cloud here, Pizzoferrato sits on a hillside
at the foot of a massive rock formation.

Travel tip:

Pizzoferrato is built on a rocky hillside on the edge of the Majella National Park and was a town that many noble families fought over down the centuries because of its strategic advantages.  It flanks an enormous rocky outcrop, on the top of which is the abandoned church of St Nicola and Madonna del Girone, which is thought to have been used once as a fortress.  Nowadays the town is a mountain holiday resort and a centre for skiing.

Travel tip:

The nearest town to Pizzoferrato is Castel di Sangro, which enjoyed some fame a few years ago when its football team, formed at the end of the Second World War, completed a journey from the lowest level of amateur football in Italy to play in Serie B, the second tier of the professional game.  For a town of only 5,500 people, this was an extraordinary achievement and became the subject of a book, The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, by the American writer Joe McGinniss.

(Main photo of Bruno Sammartino by swiftwj CC BY-SA 2.0)
(Photo of Sammartino with Triple H by Miguel Discart CC BY-SA 2.0)
(Photo of Pizzoferrato by Licia Missori CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Nazis free captive Mussolini

Extraordinary daring of Gran Sasso Raid

Mussolini, centre, is escorted to a waiting aircraft after being
 freed from his captors. SS captain Otto Skorzeny is on his left.

One of the most dramatic events of the Second World War in Italy took place on this day in 1943 when Benito Mussolini, the deposed and imprisoned Fascist dictator, was freed by the Germans.

The former leader was being held in a remote mountain ski resort when 12 gliders, each carrying paratroopers and SS officers, landed on the mountainside and took control of the hotel where Mussolini was being held.

They forced his guards to surrender before summoning a small aircraft to fly Mussolini to Rome, from where another plane flew him to Austria.  Even Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister, professed his admiration for the daring nature of the daylight rescue.

Known as the Gran Sasso Raid or Operation Oak, the rescue was ordered by Adolf Hitler himself after learning that Mussolini's government, in the shape of the Grand Fascist Council, had voted through a resolution that he be replaced as leader and that King Victor Emmanuel III had ensured that the resolution was successful by having the self-styled Duce arrested.

The Campo Imperatore Hotel at the time of the raid.

The Italian government by then had decided defeat in the War was inevitable following the Allied invasion of Sicily and the damage inflicted by Allied bombers on Rome.  Despite the weaknesses of Italy's military capability being exposed in Greece, Albania and North Africa, Mussolini made an impassioned speech to the Grand Council before his arrest, insisting they fight on. Yet many of his former supporters, including his son-in-law, the foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano, turned against him.

Hitler was furious. He regarded Mussolini not only as the only leader capable of organising the Italian forces, but as a personal friend. He denounced his successor, Marshall Pietro Badoglio, as a traitor.  The Italian government, by this time preparing to switch sides and declare war against Germany, tried to keep Mussolini's whereabouts a secret, moving him from one offshore island to another and them to remote areas of the mainland.

But the SS captain, Otto Skorzeny, personally chosen by Hitler to plan and organise Mussolini's rescue, intercepted coded radio messages and established that the former dictator's place of captivity since late August had been the Campo Imperatore Hotel, a ski resort built on a plateau in Italy's Gran Sasso massif in Abruzzo, high in the Apennine Mountains, around 2,200 metres (7,200 feet) above sea level.  It was guarded by 200 Carabinieri soldiers and accessible only by a funicular railway.

The only viable way of reaching the hotel was from the air.  Dropping troops by parachute was seen as too dangerous because of the altitude but Skorzeny had an alternative plan. His reconnaissance identified what he thought was a strip of grassy land near the hotel, which he believed would be suitable to land troop-laden gliders. These had the added benefit of being effectively noiseless, which would lend the attack an element of surprise.

The Germans landed gliders on the mountainside in order
to take troops to the scene of the rescue

In the event, the grassy strip turned out to be strewn with rocks but Skorzeny ordered his pilots to attempt to land anyway, which was a considerable gamble.  It paid off as all bar two gliders touched down safely, including his own.

In another clever move, Skorzeny had taken with him an Italian military commander sympathetic to the German cause in General Fernando Soleti, who stepped out of his glider and immediately ordered the Italian guards advancing towards the invasion party not to shoot, threatening them with execution for treason if they disobeyed.

The ensuing confusion gave the Germans opportunity to take control and the entire Italian protection squad surrendered without a shot fired.  The only injury was to a radio operator, whom Skorzeny struck with his rifle butt to stop him summoning assistance.

Skorzeny found Mussolini's room and is said to have greeted the dictator with the words 'Duce, the Fuhrer has sent me. You're free!'. He immediately ordered a small aircraft known as the Storch (Stork), designed to take off and land in limited spaces, to fly to the hotel so that he could complete the next leg of the rescue.

The Hotel Campo Imperatore as it is today

The mission almost came to grief at this stage after Skorzeny, determined that he would deliver Mussolini personally to Hitler, insisted on flying to Rome with him, even though the plane was not meant to carry more than one passenger, in addition to the pilot.  There was no spare seat but Skorzeny found he could lie on the floor, his legs stretching into the fuselage.

With 12 men holding the plane back by its wings, the pilot powered up his engine to maximum speed before ordering the men to let go, at which point the plane shot off along the makeshift runway.  It left the ground but with extra weight on board failed to gain altitude quickly enough to avoid striking a rock, sending it veering off the plateau on a downwards trajectory towards the valley below.

The watching German soldiers thought the aircraft was certain to crash but the pilot somehow managed to regain control and gain height, disappearing into the distance to reach an airstrip just outside Rome without further mishap. Skorzeny later admitted he was prepared to take the risk, fearing the consequences if the mission failed.

Later, Mussolini would return to Italy to take charge of a puppet German state, the Italian Social Republic, based in the town of Salò on Lake Garda.  Within less than two years he was dead, captured by partisans and shot as he and his mistress, Clara Petacci, tried to flee to Switzerland.

Travel tip:

The Campo Imperatore still exists as a hotel today, consisting of 45 rooms, a panoramic restaurant, bar and swimming pool. The room where Mussolini was held has been turned into a museum, its decor and furnishings preserved as they were in 1943.  It is now accessible by road in summer but the road is partially closed in winter and visitors have to transfer to the funicular railway at Fonte Cerreto, which is a town on the road between L'Aquila and Assergi.  The area is now part of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga national park.

The Venetian column with its winged lion of St Mark
on the waterfront of Salò on Lake Garda

Travel tip:

Salò, where Mussolini spent his last months in power, albeit as the leader of a satellite state controlled by the Nazis, is situated on the western shore of Lake Garda. For three centuries part of the Republic if Venice, it was captured by the Austrians in the 19th century before being freed by Garibaldi.  Its points of interest include a Gothic-style cathedral, a column topped by the winged lion of St Mark, symbolising its link with Venice, and the 16th century Palazzo della Magnifica Patria, home to an exhibition of documents from Renaissance history, Italy's colonial wars and the Resistance against Fascism.

Read more:

Benito Mussolini and the founding of the Italian Fascists

How Italy entered the Second World War

Victor Emmanuel III abdicates

(Photos of Gran Sasso Raid courtesy of German Federal Archive)
(Photo of Campo Imperatore by Ra Boe CC BY-SA 3.0)

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Sergio Marchionne - business leader

Man who saved Fiat divides opinions in Italy

Sergio Marchionne became chief
executive of Fiat in 2004

Controversial business leader Sergio Marchionne was born on this day in 1952 in the city of Chieti in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

The 64-year-old chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is credited with saving the iconic Italian motor manufacturer from potential extinction in 2004, when Fiat was on the verge of being taken into the ownership of the banks that were keeping it afloat.

It had suffered cumulative losses of more than $8 billion over the previous two years and a strategic alliance with General Motors had failed. Its share of the European car market had shrunk to an historic low of just 5.8 per cent.

Yet after the little known Marchionne was appointed chief executive at the company's Turin headquarters it took him only just over a year to bring Fiat back into profit.

When Fiat opened a new assembly line at the Mirafiori plant outside Turin in 2006, Marchionne was hailed as a hero.  The inauguration celebrations were attended by politicians of all parties and trade union leaders.  Soon, the new Fiat 500 was launched, tapping into Italian nostalgia by reprising the name that was synonymous with the optimistic years of the 1950s and 60s.

But Marchionne, who had left Italy when he was 14 and learned his business skills in Canada and Switzerland, in time antagonised the more hard-line unions with the changes he introduced to working conditions.

His popularity was not helped when ambitious plans for a 20 billion euro five-year investment in Fiat in Italy, which would have given jobs back to most of the workers laid off during the crisis years, were abandoned. Marchionne blamed the collapse of the European car market.

His standing dipped further in 2014 when he merged Fiat with Chrysler, the American company he had rescued from bankruptcy in 2009, and Fiat became a subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a multi-national company with its administrative headquarters in London.

A 1966 Fiat 500 with its modern incarnation, built
 after Marchionne relaunched the model in 2006

The new company had more employees in North America and Mexico (34 per cent) than in Italy (29 per cent) and apart from fears over jobs for Italians, there was opposition from traditionalists to the idea of Fiat losing its Italian identity.

The company, founded by Giovanni Agnelli in 1899 and always based in Turin, is seen as an Italian institution, an important part of the country's industrial heritage.

Marchionne prefers to describe the company as having many bases, with factories and offices in Canada, India, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Poland and China as well as Italy and the United States. He spends much of his time flying between them.

His global outlook might owe something to his own multi-national heritage.  His mother hailed from Istria, the peninsula in Croatia that used to belong to Italy, and met his father, from Abruzzo, when the latter was serving in Istria as a carabiniere officer.

They moved to Chieti in 1945 and decided to relocate to Canada in 1966, joining relatives in Toronto. Marchionne has degrees in philosophy, commerce and law, is qualified as an accountant and a barrister, holds dual Canadian and Italian citizenship and is fluent in Italian and English.

Before joining Fiat he was chief executive of a company in Switzerland, where he has a home.  He has a passion for fast cars -- he is also chief executive of Ferrari -- and classical music but has managed largely to keep his private life out of the public gaze.  His wife and two sons live in Switzerland.

UPDATE: Marchionne died in Zurich in July 2018 at the age of 66.

The Gothic Cathedral in Chieti

Travel tip:

Chieti is among the most historic Italian cities, supposedly founded in 1181BC by the Homeric Greek hero Achilles and was named Theate in honour of his mother, Thetis. Among its main sights are a Gothic Cathedral, rebuilt after earthquake damage in the 18th century on the sight of a church that dates back to the 11th century.

Travel tip:

The former Fiat plant in the Lingotto district of Turin was once the largest car factory in the world, built to a linear design by the Futurist architect Giacomo Matte Trucco and featuring a rooftop test track made famous in the Michael Caine movie, The Italian Job. Redesigned by the award-winning contemporary architect Renzo Piano, it now houses concert halls, a theatre, a convention centre, shopping arcades and a hotel, as well as the Automotive Engineering faculty of the Polytechnic University of Turin.

More reading:

Vittorio Jano - motor racing engineer who helped put Ferrari on the map

Enrico Piaggio - man behind the iconic Vespa

Daniela Riccardi - leading Italian businesswoman

(Photo of Sergio Marchionne by Ricardo Stuckert CC BY-SA 3.0 br)
(Photo of Fiat 500s by dave_7 CC BY-SA 2.0)
(Photo of Cathedral in Chieti by Raboe001 CC BY-SA 2.5)




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Gabriele D’Annunzio – writer and patriot

Military hero influenced Mussolini with his distinctive style

Gabriele D'Annunzio: writer and military
hero, pictured in the 1930s

Poet, playwright and political leader Gabriele D’Annunzio was born on this day in 1863 in Pescara in Abruzzo.

He is considered to be the leading writer in Italy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as being a military hero and a political activist. Some of his ideas and actions were believed to have influenced Italian Fascism and the style of the dictator, Benito Mussolini.

D’Annunzio was the son of a wealthy landowner and went to university in Rome. His first poetry was published when he was just 16 and the novels that made him famous came out when he was in his twenties.

At the age of 30 he began a long liaison with the actress Eleonora Duse and started writing plays for her. But his writing failed to pay for his extravagant lifestyle and he had to flee to France in 1910 because of his debts.

After Italy entered the First World War, D’Annunzio returned and plunged into the fighting, losing an eye during combat while serving with the air force. He became famous for his bold, individual actions, such as his daring flight over Vienna to drop thousands of propaganda leaflets and his surprise attack on the Austrian fleet with power boats when they were moored at Buccari Bay in what is now Croatia.

Eleonora Duse, the actress with
whom D'Annunzio had a long affair

In 1919, with about 300 supporters, he occupied the port of Fiume, now Rijeka, whose population was mostly Italian. D’Annunzio believed it belonged to Italy but the Italian Government and the Allies were proposing to incorporate it into the new state of Yugoslavia.

He ruled Fiume as a dictator until December 1920. Some of his slogans and the tactics he used while he was leader there were later copied by Mussolini.

After Italian forces made him abdicate he retired to his home at Gardone Riviera to write .In 1922 he was pushed out of a window by an unknown assailant but, although badly injured, he survived the fall.

He was given the hereditary title of Principe di Montenevoso by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1924.

Next to his house he built a stadium, Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, to display his torpedo boat and the aircraft in which he flew over Vienna. A mausoleum was built there after his death in 1938 to contain his remains.

The amphitheatre at Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, the stadium
D'Annunzio built next to his home overlooking Lake Garda

Travel tip:

Il Vittoriale degli italiani, The Shrine of Italian Victories, is an estate in the hillside above the town of Gardone Riviera, overlooking Lake Garda in the province of Brescia. D’Annunzio began planning the estate in 1921 with architect Giancarlo Maroni. Jutting out of the hillside is the cruiser, Puglia, its bow pointing symbolically in the direction of the Adriatic, as though ready to conquer the Dalmatian shores. Now a national monument, the estate houses a military museum and library and is a popular tourist destination.

Gabriele D'Annunzio's former house in Pescara is now a
museum dedicated to the writer's life

Travel tip:

The birthplace of Gabriele D’Annunzio in Corso Manthonè in Pescara is now the Museo Casa Natale Gabriele D’Annunzio. The house at number 116, where he spent his childhood, displays furniture, documents and photographs illustrating the writer’s life. It is open to visitors every morning from 9 am to 1.30 pm. For more information, click here.

Pescara hotels by Booking.com

More reading:

The founding of Mussolini's Fascist Party

The abdication of Victor Emmanuel III

Why Eleonora Duse is seen as one of Italy's greatest acting talents

Also on this day:

1501: The birth of doctor and botanist Pietro Andrea Mattioli

1921: The birth of Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli


(Picture credits: Amphitheatre by BlueSky2012; museum by RaBoe001; via Wikimedia Commons)

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