Renata Viganò - writer and partisan

Resistance-inspired novel hailed as masterpiece

Renata Viganò's later writing career was
coloured by her time in the Resistance

The writer and partisan Renata Viganò, whose 1949 novel L’Agnese va a morire - Agnes Goes to Die - was considered a masterpiece among literary works inspired by the heroics of the Italian Resistance movement in World War Two, died on this day in 1976 in her home city of Bologna.

L’Agnese va a morire, Viganò’s second novel, won the Viareggio Prize, a prestigious literary award, and was translated into 14 languages and subsequently turned into a film.

Viganò, who had volumes of poetry published as a teenager and became a prolific contributor to the news and editorial pages of a number of newspapers, wrote L’Agnese va a morire from the viewpoint of a newspaper reporter, which placed it in the neorealist genre that became popular with film-makers in the postwar years.

Born in Bologna in 1900, Viganò’s father, Eugenio, was a socialist from Reggio Emilia but ran his own business. Her mother, Amelia, hailed from a wealthy family and they were initially comfortably off. 

A talented writer from a young age, she had volumes of poetry published at the ages of 13 and 16 and went to a classical liceo - high school - with dreams of becoming a doctor.

However, the economic consequences of Italy’s involvement in the First World War caused Eugenio’s business to collapse. With the family suddenly poor, Renata had to give up high school in order to contribute to the household’s income, finding work in local hospitals, first as a janitor but eventually as a nurse.

Viganò with her husband, Antonio Meluschi,
with whom she shared her wartime experience

She continued to write. Her first novel was published in 1933 and her involvement in literary circles in Bologna led her to meet another writer, Antonio Meluschi. They married in 1937 and their home - at via Mascarella 63 -  became a meeting point for writers and intellectuals, including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luciano Serra, Enzo Biagi, Giorgio Bassani and Achille Ardigò.

As World War Two began, her politics became increasingly influenced by the left and with Italy’s formal surrender to the Allies in 1943 she and her husband decided to take a more active role in fighting fascism by joining the Resistance movement.

Under the name of Contessa, she was a courier and nurse in a partisan brigade commanded by Meluschi, first in Romagna and then in the wetlands and lagoons of the Valli di Comacchio, where she directed what could be described as a partisans' health service. 

Unlike many of their fellow fighters, Viganò and her husband survived the war and it was soon afterwards that she began working on L’Agnese va a morire.

Heavily autobiographical, set in the Valli di Comacchio during the eight months of German occupation of Italy that preceded the country’s liberation, the protagonist is Agnese, a middle-aged washerwoman, who responds to the death of her husband, Palita, at the hands of the Germans, by beginning to collaborate with the partisans as a liaison officer.

The novel came to the attention of Natalia Ginzburg, herself destined to become an award-winning writer, who was then an editor at Einaudi, and was identified by the renowned literary critic Maria Corti as one of the finest works on the Resistance. 

Viganò in later life; she invariably had
a cat for company as she worked

In 1976, L'Agnese va a morire was made into a film, released internationally under the title of And Agnese Goes to Die, directed by Giuliano Montaldo, with a screenplay by Nicola Badalucco and Giuliano Montaldo and music by Ennio Morricone. It starred Ingrid Thulin in the role of Agnese and Massimo Girotti in that of Palita, with a cast that also included Michele Placido and Aurore Clement. Sadly, Viganò died shortly before the film was released

Among Viganò's subsequent works were other books on the battle for Italy’s freedom, including Donne della Resistenza (1955) and Matrimonio in brigata (1976).

She also established herself in the years after the war as one of Italy’s most incisive voices during the country’s reconstruction, her contributions from the pages of l'Unità, the official Communist Party newspaper, reaching a wide audience of not only women. 

Two months before her death at the age of 75, she was recognised by the city of Bologna for her contribution to journalism.

Bologna dedicated a garden to her with a small monument in the Savena district, while the municipalities of San Lazzaro, Pontecchio and Ferrara named streets after her.

The marshes of the Valli di Comacchio are
attractive to walkers and birdwatchers

Travel tip:

The marshes of the Valli di Comacchio, while reduced in size by land reclamation in recent years, are still one of the largest lagoon systems in Italy. They cover an area of more than 11,000 hectares between Comacchio and the river Reno and are connected to the sea via canals. They form an environment of rare beauty within the Po Delta Park, the stretches of water in some places divided by embankments and ancient sandbars. The area is one of rich birdlife, both resident and migratory, and visitors are attracted by walks along the banks, excursions by boat and birdwatching.

The Porta Mascarella, where Via Mascarella ends,
is one of 10 remaining gates in Bologna's outer wall

Travel tip:

Via Mascarella, where Renata Viganò lived with her husband in Bologna before they moved out of the city to fight with the Resistance movement in World War Two, is an historic thoroughfare that dates back at least until the early 13th century. Stretching from Via delle Belle Arti to Piazza di Porta Mascarella, it is the only road leading to one of the city’s outer gates that is completely outside the Cerchia del Mille, the second of the three circles of ancient walls built to enclose the city at various points in history. The oldest walls of which visible remains remain today are those of the Cerchia di Selenite, built following the barbarian invasions, at the time of the decline of the Western Roman Empire in the third century and discovered only in the 1920s. These walls enclosed an area of only about 20 hectares. The Cerchia dei Mille was erected probably in the 11th century with the expansion of the city and the growth of new villages outside the original walls. Construction of the third ring began 200 years later. Much of this circle was demolished at the start of the 20th century to make way for a ring road, although thankfully 10 of the 12 gates were preserved.

Also on this day:

1554: The death of poet Gaspara Stampa

1857: The birth of opera composer Ruggero Leoncavallo

1939: The birth of Mafia boss Stefano Bontade

1964: The birth of conductor Gianandrea Noseda

2021: The death of singer and actress Milva

Home

Antonio Locatelli - pioneering aviator

Brave airman tried to circumnavigate the globe

A Dornier Do J flying boat similar to that in which
Antonio Locatelli attempted to fly around the globe 

Courageous pilot Antonio Locatelli, who was recognised for his valour during World War I, was born on this day in 1895 in Bergamo in Lombardy.

Locatelli was celebrated for performing solo reconnaissance flights over Zeppelin yards in Austria and for being daring enough to fly over Vienna, before he was shot down and captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. 

He tried unsuccessfully to escape twice, but was successful on his third attempt and was able to rejoin the Italian troops.

After the war, he was awarded three Gold medals and a Silver medal for military valour and made a Knight of the Military Order of Savoy.

Born into a Bergamo family, Locatelli studied at the Istituto Industriale Pietro Paleocapa in Bergamo and then became chief technician at a local company.

After World War I broke out, Locatelli joined a flying unit and was granted his pilot’s licence in 1915. He then served in writer and patriot Gabriele D’Annunzio’s air squadron.

He flew 513 sorties during the war, starting with reconnaissance missions, but then flying fighters and bombers.

Locatelli was decorated for his
valour during World War I

In 1924, Locatelli led Italy’s attempt to achieve the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. With a crew of three, he flew a German-made flying boat, a metal-hulled Dornier Do J Wal (Whale), powered by two Rolls Royce engines.

He left Pisa on July 25 heading west, but his attempt came to an end on August 21 when heavy fog forced him to touch down in the sea 120 miles short of Greenland. The plane’s engine carriers were damaged and so the flight could not be resumed. 

Fortunately, four days earlier he had met up in Reykjavik with the American team who were attempting the same feat and this meeting was to save the lives of Locatelli and his crew.

When the Italians failed to arrive in Greenland, the Americans raised the alarm and Locatelli and his crew were picked up by a US naval ship that had been sent to search the area.

Locatelli later became a National Fascist party legislator and was elected as a deputy to parliament. In 1933 he was nominated as podestà - mayor - of Bergamo, a role in which he served for a year.  

In 1936, at the age of 41, Locatelli was killed in Lechemeti in Ethiopia during the second Italo-Ethiopian war. He was buried in the Cimitero Monumentale di Bergamo.

In Bergamo, Via Antonio Locatelli in the Città Bassa is named after him and he is also commemorated by the Antonio Locatelli Primary School in Cavernago, a comune - municipality - situated about 11km (7 miles) southeast of Bergamo. 

Bergamo's Piazza Vecchia has been hailed as
the most beautiful squares in all of Italy

Travel tip

Bergamo, where Antonio Locatelli was born, is a fascinating, historic city in Lombardy in the north of Italy, which has two distinct centres. The Città Alta (upper town) is a beautiful walled city with buildings that date back to medieval times. But there are plenty of shops, bars, and restaurants to make it comfortable and welcoming for visitors today. At the heart of the upper town is the Piazza Vecchia, which was remodelled during the Renaissance and has been hailed by architects and writers as the most beautiful square in Italy. It is surrounded by old palaces and has a 12th century bell tower that still strikes 100 times at ten pm each night to mark the ancient curfew. The elegant Città Bassa (lower town) grew up on the plain below and still has some buildings left that date back to the 15th century. But more imposing and elaborate architecture was added in the 19th and early 20th centuries and it is now a vibrant city with palaces, churches, art galleries and museums worth visiting as well as a theatre named after Bergamo-born composer Gaetano Donizetti. 

The Tre Cime - three peaks - di Lavoredo is in an 
area where Locatelli would climb as a young man

Travel tip 

Locatelli had been a keen mountaineer in his youth and had climbed the Adamello in Trentino with his brother, Carlo. Therefore, the Antonio Locatelli Hut, a refuge in the Tre Cime Natural Park in Alto Adige-South Tyrol is named after him. The Locatelli refuge can be reached by walking from the Auronzo refuge, which takes approximately one hour and twenty minutes’ or from Lake Landro, a journey of three hours. To honour Locatelli’s memory, a statue of the Virgin of Loreto, the patron saint of airmen, is housed inside the refuge. From the refuge, visitors have panoramic views of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, three distinctive mountain peaks that look like battlements.

Also on this day:

1588: The death of painter Paolo Veronese

1798: The death of the Venetian painter Canaletto

1937: The birth of chef and restaurateur Antonio Carluccio

1953: The birth of high jumper Sara Simeoni

1957: The birth of TV journalist Lilli Gruber

Home

Mantegna frescoes reduced to rubble

Precious works of art damaged by Allied bombing

A photograph taken soon after the raid
shows the scale of damage to the church

One of the heaviest losses to Italy’s cultural heritage during World War Two occurred on this day in 1944 in Padua in the Veneto region when 15th century frescoes painted by the artist Andrea Mantegna were blown into thousands of pieces by bombs.

A raid on the city was carried out by the Allies, hoping to hit Padua’s railway station and an adjoining marshalling yard, as well as a building where the occupying Germans had established their headquarters. But the bombs landed on Padua’s Chiesa degli Eremitani instead, causing devastating damage to frescoes created by the young Mantegna in one of the side chapels.

It was one of the worst blows inflicted on Italy’s art treasures during the war, as Mantegna’s frescoes, which had been painted directly on to the walls of the church, were considered a major work.

Andrea Mantegna, who was born near Vicenza in 1431, had been commissioned to paint a cycle of frescoes in the Ovetari Chapel, one of the side chapels in the Church of the Eremitani.

The commission marked the beginning of Mantegna’s artistic career when he started work at the age of 17 in 1448. The artist was in his mid-20s by the time he had finished the cycle in 1457, which showed scenes from the lives of Saint James and Saint Christopher. 

Some of the scenes from Mantegna's
frescoes have been partially restored

Because of the historical value of Mantegna's work, the Church of the Eremitani was on a list of buildings and monuments Allied bombers had been instructed to avoid. However, tragically, the German invading army had established their headquarters in Padua right next to the church.

When the bombs fell in 1944, targeting was not as precise as it is today and the Ovetari Chapel was severely damaged. Mantegna's wonderful frescoes were reduced to more than 88,000 separate pieces, which were later found mixed in with bits of plaster and bricks on the ground.

Fortunately, a detailed photographic survey of the work had been made previously and it was possible later to reconstruct the artist’s designs and recompose part of the cycle depicting the Martyrdom of Saint James. The photographic record was used to create panels in black and white where Mantegna's frescoes had been.

 Recovered fragments that could be identified were then fixed to the panels in their original positions, so that at least a partial reconstruction could be carried out. Colour has been applied to other parts of the panels to give visitors to the chapel a better idea of how the frescoes originally looked. 

Other frescoes by Mantegna, including the Assumption and the Martyrdom of St. Christopher, had been removed before the war to protect them from damp, and they remained undamaged and were eventually reinstated in the church.

In other chapels in the church, 14th century frescoes painted by Guarentio and Giusto de’ Menabuoi miraculously survived.

Padua was bombed 24 times by Allied aircraft between December 1943 and the end of the war. On  March 11, when the Church of Eremitani was hit, the city was attacked by 111 planes, which dropped 300 tons of bombs.

The previous month, during the Battle of Rome, the Abbey of Monte Cassino to the south east of the capital city, which was the oldest Benedictine monastery in the world, was destroyed by Allied bombers. This is now acknowledged as one of the biggest strategic errors of the Second World War on the Allied side.

Some of the remains of Padua's Roman
amphitheatre are still standing

Travel tip: 

Padua is believed to be one of the oldest cities in northern Italy. It was founded in about 1183 BC by the Trojan prince, Antenor. The Roman writer, Livy, records an attempted invasion of the city by the Spartans in 302 BC. Later attempts at invasions were made unsuccessfully by the Etruscans and Gauls. The city formed an alliance with Rome against their common enemies and it became a Roman municipium in about 49BC. By the end of the first century BC, Padua was the wealthiest city in Italy, apart from Rome. The Roman name for Padua was Patavium. You can still see the remains of the Roman Ampitheatre, or Arena as it was known, which is in Padua’s Giardino dell’Arena. The main entrance would have been near the present-day Piazza Eremitani, where the Church of the Eremitani is located. 

The Chiesa degli Eremitani in Padua dates
back to the mid-13th century 

Travel tip:

La Chiesa degli Eremitani - Church of the Eremitani or Church of the Hermits - is a former Augustinian Gothic-style church close to the Cappella Scrovegni in Piazza Eremitani in the centre of Padua. The church was built for Augustinian friars between 1260 and 1276 and dedicated to the Saints Philip and James. The friars remained in the church and adjoining monastery until 1806 when Padua was under Napoleonic rule and the order was suppressed. The church was reopened for services in 1808 and became a parish church in 1817. The church has a single nave with plain walls decorated with ochre and red bricks and it has a vaulted wooden ceiling. It houses the ornate tombs of two lords of Padua, Jacopo II da Carrara and Ubertino da Carrara, designed by Andriolo de Santi. The Musei Civici agli Eremitani (Civic Museum) of Padua is now housed in the former Augustinian monastery to the left of the church.  The Scrovegni Chapel is famed for its brilliant frescoes by Giotto, painted between 1303 and 1305.

Also on this day: 

1544: The birth of poet Torquato Tasso

1669: Mount Etna’s biggest eruption

1847: The birth of politician Sidney Sonnino

1851: Premiere of Verdi opera Rigoletto

1924: The birth of psychiatrist Franco Basaglia

Home

The Battle of Anzio

Key moment in World War II brought heavy casualties

A British landing craft unloads tanks and troop
carriers on to the beach at the start of the assault

British and American troops landed on the beach at Anzio, a coastal town south of Rome in the region of Lazio, in the early hours of the morning on this day in 1944.

The Allies were planning to dislodge German troops blocking the route to Rome and to liberate the capital city quickly, but the Battle of Anzio was to last for many months and cause the deaths of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

Operation Shingle, the name for the complex amphibious landing, had been the idea of the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, as he lay in bed recovering from pneumonia in December 1943. His concept was to land two divisions of men at Anzio, and nearby Nettuno, bypassing the German forces entrenched across the Gustav Line in central Italy, to enable the Allies to take Rome.

But the operation was opposed by German troops, as well as forces from the newly-created Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI) - the Nazi puppet state in northern Italy - who were located in the area.

Operation Shingle was originally commanded by Major General John Lucas of the US Army. 

Allied troops and vehicles at first faced little
opposition as they made their way ashore

Its success depended on the element of surprise and the swiftness with which the invading soldiers moved inland. The location was reclaimed marshland and it was surrounded by mountains. Any delay could result in the mountains being occupied by the German and Italian troops and result in the Allied soldiers becoming trapped.

The landing was initially a success with seemingly no opposition from the Germans, but Lucas, perhaps not fully appreciating the importance of moving on from the beach quickly and wanting to be cautious, delayed the advance until he felt that the position of his troops was fully consolidated.

Meanwhile, the commander of the German troops, Field Marshall Albert Kesselring, moved every unit he could spare into a defensive ring around the beachhead. The Germans also stopped the drainage pumps and flooded the reclaimed marshland with salt water, planning to trap the Allied soldiers there and expose them to a malaria epidemic spread by the area's mosquitos. 

For weeks, shells rained on to the beach, harbour, and marshland, and anything else that the Germans could see from their position above.

After a month of fighting, Lucas was relieved of his command and sent home. He was replaced by Major General Lucian Truscott.

British troops had to take cover in shallow trenches
as they came under heavy German bombardment

By May, the Allies had managed to break out of the area, but instead of moving inland to cut the lines of communication of the German units fighting at Monte Cassino in the south of Lazio, which was Truscott’s first instinct, he was ordered to turn his troops north west to Rome.

As a result, German troops fighting at Monte Cassino were able to withdraw and join Kesselring’s forces north of Rome, where they regrouped and fought back against the Allies.

They were aiming to defend the next major position on what was then known as the Gothic Line, the last major line of defence for the German troops.

The surprise landings at Anzio and Nettuno on January 22 finally achieved their goal when the Allies captured Rome on June 4, 1944. 

But the Battle of Anzio had resulted in 24,000 US, and 10,000 British, casualties, men who were either killed, wounded, or reported missing. There were also about 40,000 casualties among the German and Italian troops.

Around 300,000 troops, together with their weapons, had fought with intensity along just a 16-mile stretch of coastline. The Germans were able to observe the battlefield from above and pummel the Allies, who were tightly packed on the beachhead and fought back ferociously, knowing they could not afford to be pushed back into the sea.

Even Churchill, and the other supporters of Operation Shingle, had not expected the intense months of fighting that were to eventually take place.

Anzio today is a seaside resort and fishing port and
a departure point for ferries to the Pontine Islands

Travel tip:

The town of Anzio is about 51 kilometres, or 32 miles, to the south of Rome in the region of Lazio. It is also a fishing port and a departure point for ferries to the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian sea of Ponza, Palmarola, and Ventotene. Anzio was known as Antium in Roman times and its symbol remains to this day the goddess Fortuna. At the end of the 17th century, the Popes Innocent XII and Clement XI had the port rebuilt and also restored the harbour. In 1925, Anzio became the Station for the first submarine telecommunications cable connected to New York. The Commonwealth Anzio War cemetery and Beachhead War Cemetery are both located in Anzio. Along the coastline are the remains of many Roman villas, one of which has been identified as a former home of the Emperor Nero.

A staircase in the mediæval
part of the town of Nettuno

Travel tip:

The nearby town of Nettuno is now a tourist resort and has a harbour and a yacht club. Nettuno is also a centre for production of the white wine, Cacchione, which has been awarded DOC status. Nettuno has a well preserved Borgo Medievale with mediæval streets and squares and early in the 16th century the Forte Sangallo was built by the architect Antonio Sangallo the Elder to protect the town from the sea. Gabriele d’Annunzio wrote his opera, La Figlia di Iorio, while he was a guest in Nettuno with the actress Eleonora Duse, and Luigi Pirandello wrote a novel, Va Bene, set in Nettuno in 1904. After their landing during World War II, American soldiers taught the people of Nettuno to play baseball and Nettuno Baseball Club is now one of the most important Italian baseball teams. The footballer and manager Bruno Conti was born in Nettuno in 1955.

Also on this day:

1506: The founding of the Papal Swiss Guard

1889: The birth of supercentenarian Antonio Todde

1893: The birth of gang boss Frankie Yale

1956: The death of brigand and folk hero Giuseppe Musolino

2005: The death of double World War veteran Carlo Orelli

Home

Irma Marchiani - partisan

Resistance heroine honoured with medal for valour

Irma Marchiani was deputy
commander of her battalion

Irma Marchiani, who was one of only a small number of women to achieve promotion to a leadership role in the Italian Resistance movement in WW2, died on this day in 1944 in the town of Pavullo nel Frignano in the Apennine mountains, about 50km (31 miles) south of the city of Modena.

Along with three other partisans, Marchiani was shot dead by a firing squad, having a few days earlier been captured by a German patrol as they tried to cross enemy lines. She was 33 years old.

Posthumously awarded a Gold Medal for Military Valour by the postwar Italian government, wrote a poignant letter to his sister, Palmyra, shortly before she was killed, in which she said she would die ‘sure that I have done everything possible for freedom to triumph’.

Marchiani was born in Florence, on February 6, 1911. Her father Adamberto was a railway worker with strong anti-Fascist views who would regularly participate in industrial action aimed at achieving better living conditions for his fellow workers. 

After taking part in a large-scale insurrection in June 1914, marked by multiple riots and strikes, Adamberto was given a transfer from Florence to La Spezia in Liguria, seemingly as punishment for his role in the unrest. 

During Irma Marchiani’s school years, violent acts committed by supporters of Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascist Party became commonplace, with squads of Blackshirt thugs allowed to pursue their agenda with little regard for the rule of law. They set fire to premises used by groups associated with their Socialist enemies and handed savage beatings to their opponents. 

Marchiani was familiar with the rugged territory
around Sestola in the Modena Apennines

Against this backdrop, her father was dismissed from his job in La Spezia in 1924 and Irma grew increasingly to hate what her country had become. In memory of her grandfather, who had fought for Italy’s freedom in a different era, she would often wear on her chest the five-pointed star of Garibaldi's volunteers, of which he had been a member.

At school, Irma had excelled at drawing but her father’s sudden unemployment meant she had to give up her education and find a job. She first found work as a milliner, then as an embroiderer and window dresser. She had ambitions to design clothes of her own and in the 1930s enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara so that she could attend a course in anatomical drawing.

Throughout this time, she suffered regularly from bronchial disorders and every year would spend holidays in the Modena Apennines, breathing the clean air and attending a clinic in the village of Sestola. 

She happened to be there in September, 1943, when Italy’s surrender to the Allies prompted Nazi Germany to invade the country from the north. Having acquired a knowledge of the territory through her frequent visits, Irma recalled her grandfather’s support for Garibaldi and decided she too would fight for Italy’s freedom. Opting to stay in the mountains rather than return to La Spezia, she joined up with the fledgling resistance movement.

After some months working as a courier, conveying vital messages as the various resistance groups tried to co-ordinate their activities, she joined the Garibaldi Roveda brigade and was assigned to the Matteotti battalion. She was known by the nom de guerre "Anty".

In August, 1944, while fighting near Montefiorino, she was arrested, captured while bravely attempting to help a seriously wounded fellow partisan get to a field hospital. She was imprisoned with a view to being deported to Germany.

Irma Marchiani was inspired by
her grandfather to fight for freedom

Determined to continue to fight against the occupation of her homeland, she escaped and managed to rejoin her group. 

Many of the leaders of the resistance movement were communists but for all their supposedly progressive political ideals, the hierarchy was almost exclusively male and it was rare for a female to have a prominent position. Yet Irma’s bravery and knowledge impressed her colleagues and she was soon promoted, first to commissioner and then deputy battalion commander. 

It was her bravery that proved to be her downfall. During fighting in Benedello, she remained alone in occupied territory, again seeking to guide wounded partisans to safety. On the morning of 12 November, while trying to cross enemy lines, she was spotted and was captured by a German patrol along with three fellow fighters.

They were taken to the prison of Pavullo nel Frignano and subjected to questioning under torture. After 15 days of detention, as night fell on November 26, the four were taken outside the prison and executed. 

Alongside Marchiani, 27-year-old Domenico "Pisolo" Guidani, 28-year-old Renzo “Remo” Costi and 17-year-old Gaetano “Balilla” Ruggeri were also shot. Today, there is a monument bearing their names set into a wall that marks the spot where they fell.

Another monument commemorating the trio stands at the entrance to the Ducal Park of Pavullo nel Frignano.

Irma’s letter to her sister came to light in May My Blood Serve, a book written about the men and women of the Italian Resistance by the journalist Aldo Cazzullo, published in 2015. It read:

“My beloved Pally, These are the last moments of my life. Beloved Pally I tell you: greet and kiss everyone who will remember me. Believe me, I have never done anything that could offend our name. I felt the call of the homeland for which I fought: now I am here, soon I will no longer be here, I die sure that I have done everything possible for freedom to triumph. Kisses and kisses from your Paggetto. I would like to be buried in Sestola.”

Eight years after her death, Irma’s Gold Medal for Military Valour was pinned to the chest of her brother, Pietro Marchiani, at a ceremony in La Spezia in June, 1952.

The municipalities of Pavullo nel Frignano, Rome, Modena, Savignano sul Panaro, Livorno and Ciampino all have named a street after her.

In Pavullo nel Frignano, the monument outside the Ducal Park is marked with a plaque that bears the words: 

“Valiant partisan ..... she participated with indomitable courage in the battles of Montefiorino and Benedello did her utmost in loving assistance to the wounded ..... Arrested and sentenced to deportation, she managed to escape, falling back into the hands of the enemy, fearlessly facing death.”

The pretty fishing village of Portovenere is
just a short distance from La Spezia

Travel tip:

The port town of La Spezia, where Irma Marchiani grew up, is home to Italy's largest naval base. It is often overlooked as a travel destination because of the proximity of the tourist hot spots of the Cinque Terre coastline but offers an affordable alternative base for touring the area as well as an attractive destination in its own right. It is one of Italy’s busiest ports, yet the narrow streets of the old city are deeply atmospheric and have plenty to interest visitors, with a wealth of good restaurants showing off the best Ligurian cuisine. La Spezia is a point of departure for visiting Lerici, Portovenere and the Cinque Terre by boat. The recently-restored Castle of San Giorgio, the 13th century Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and a number of Art Nouveau villas are all worth visiting. The Gulf of La Spezia is known as the Gulf of the Poets because of its associations with the English romantic poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The Castle of Montecuccolo has stood guard
over Pavullo nel Frignano since the 1600s

Travel tip:

In the heart of Frignano Regional Park, the town of Pavullo nel Frignano was once the main Roman stronghold in the Modena Apennines, while it is also home to the medieval Castle of Montecuccolo, birthplace of the 17th century condottiero Raimondo Montecuccoli, which stands well preserved despite the area suffering extensive damage during World War II due to its proximity to the German defensive positions of the Gothic Line.  As well as the mediaeval centre, it is well worth visiting the Ducal Palace and Park, the Parish Church of St Bartholomew, the Church of St Francis of Assisi and the modern art gallery. The surrounding countryside offers the Sassoguidano nature reserve, mountain-bike trails, opportunities for trekking, and an equestrian centre.

Also on this day: 

1908: The birth of hotelier and businessman Charles Forte

1918: The birth of entrepreneur Giorgio Cini

1940: The birth of mathematician Enrico Bombieri

1949: The birth of politician and businesswoman Letizia Moratti

1963: The death of soprano Amelita Galli-Curci

Home

Enrico Vanzini - Dachau survivor

Italian internee forced to work for Nazis

Enrico Vanzini kept his story
private for 60 years after WW2

Enrico Vanzini, a remarkable centenarian former soldier who survived seven months in a concentration camp after being forced to assist his captors as his fellow detainees were subjected to the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime, was born on this day in 1922 in the town of Fagnano Olona in Lombardy.

Vanzini, who was stationed with the Italian army in Greece for much of World War Two, was arrested in September 1943 after swearing allegiance to the King of Italy rather than Benito Mussolini’s Republic of Salò.

He spent the remainder of the conflict as a prisoner of war in Germany, at the end of which he was forced to work as a member of the so-called Sonderkommando, a group of prisoners made to collaborate with the Nazi SS in the extermination of mainly Jewish detainees in their death camps.

Vanzini was made to assist among other things with the cremation of bodies at Dachau, just outside Munich, where he spent seven months. The ordeal ended when the camp was liberated by the Allies in April 1945, at which point he weighed just 64lbs (29kg).

At the age of 102 and resident of a care home in Padua, he is the only Italian former Sonderkommando still alive.

In his book, entitled L'ultimo sonderkommando italiano - The Last Italian Sonderkommando - he described himself as “an ordinary village lad” in Fagnano. He was born just 10 days after Mussolini’s Fascists took power in Italy.

The gates of the Dachau complex near
Munich, soon after it was liberated

His father, who had been a soldier in World War One, was no supporter of the Fascist regime and Vanzini grew up to have similar sentiments. Yet at the age of 18 he found himself fighting on the side of Mussolini and the Germans.

Having enlisted in the artillery in the Alba Barracks with the outbreak of war in 1939, he was initially destined for the Russian front but was spared being one of 115,000 Italians killed there by a bout of appendicitis. When he had recovered sufficiently to resume service, he was sent instead to Greece, where Italian casualties were far fewer.

He was still in Greece when Mussolini was arrested on the orders of the Italian monarch, King Victor Emmanuel III, in July 1943, and detained at a remote hotel in the Apennine mountains.  When the dictator was freed by German paratroopers two months later and installed as leader of the puppet state of Salò in Nazi-occupied northern Italy, Vanzini refused to be part of the new republic, swearing loyalty to the King instead.

Subsequently arrested, he became a prisoner of war and was put on a train in Athens and taken to the city of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, where he was forced to work in a tank chassis factory.

A year after his arrival there, the factory was destroyed in an American bombing raid and he and two companions slipped away in the ensuing chaos, only to be recaptured 10 days later in the countryside near Munich. Ironically, they were betrayed by an Italian girl who befriended them but turned out to be a spy working for the Germans.

Vanzini wrote a book about
his experience at Dachau

The trio were sent to Buchenwald and initially were condemned to death by firing squad. Arguing that they fled the Ingolstadt factory for their own safety, they were spared death but only after being earmarked to work in the gas chambers at Dachau, where their grim duties included retrieving bodies for cremation.

Thankfully, the arrival of Allied troops at Dachau allowed Vanzini to return home. Once he had regained his health, he had a career as a bus or lorry driver and lived a quiet life, keeping his experiences to himself for 60 years before, in 2003, he began to share his stories. At first he held conferences in schools and public halls, later participating in a documentary film and eventually writing his book.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, in January, 2013 the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, presented him with the Medal of Honour.

Extraordinarily, given what he had been through, Vanzini has enjoyed a remarkably long and healthy life. He was still fit enough at 99 years of age to be granted a two-year extension to his driver’s licence and, having revealed in an interview his lifelong devotion to the Inter-Milan football team, was presented with a special club shirt on his 100th birthday.

The Visconti Castle at Fagnano Olona has stood
guard over the town since Mediaeval times

Travel tip:

Fagnano Olona, where Vanzini was born, is a town of 12,301 inhabitants about 19km (12 miles) south of the city of Varese. Originally a Roman settlement, it occupied a strategic position on the Olona river. A castle built there in the Middle Ages was fought for by both the Della Torre and Visconti families in the 13th century and the armies of France and Spain 200 years later. The town has a number of important religious buildings including the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Selva and the parish church of San Gaudenzio. The mediaeval Visconti Castle in Piazza Cavour, between the centre of the town and the Olona river, today houses the town hall.

The waterfront at modern-day Salò, which is a
thriving resort on picturesque Lake Garda

Travel tip:

For all its associations with Mussolini and his Nazi allies, the town of Salò on the banks of Lake Garda is an attractive resort known for having the longest promenade on the lake.  The main sights  in Salò are the Duomo di Santa Maria Annunziata, which was rebuilt in late Gothic style in the 15th century and the Palazzo della Magnifica Patria, which houses an exhibition of important historical documents. There is also MuSa, il Museo di Salò, which opened in 2015 in la Chiesa di Santa Giustina in Via Brunati, which has exhibitions about the history of the town, including its brief period as a republic.  Mussolini’s home during the brief life of the Republic of Salò is now the Grand Hotel Feltrinelli in Via Rimembranza in Gargnano, a short distance along the coast of the lake.

Also on this day:

1626: The consecration of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome

1630: The birth of Holy Roman Empress Eleonora Gonzaga

1804: The birth of general and statesman Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora

1849: The birth of builder and architect Stefano Cardu

1891: The birth of architect and designer Gio Ponti

1906: The birth of publisher Gianni Mazzocchi

1911: The birth of poet Attilio Bertolucci

Home

Dino Grandi - politician

Fascist who ultimately turned against Mussolini

Dino Grandi was a member
of the Fascist Grand Council

The Fascist politician Dino Grandi was born on this day in 1895 in Mordano, a small town near Imola in Emilia-Romagna.

Although Grandi was an active member of Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts and a staunch advocate of using violence to suppress opponents of Mussolini’s National Fascist Party, he ultimately became central to the Italian dictator’s downfall.

During his time as the Italian Ambassador in London, Grandi tried to forge a pact between Italy and Britain that would have prevented Italy entering World War Two.  Under pressure from the German leader Adolf Hitler, Mussolini removed him from the post of ambassador and appointed him Minister of Justice.

Grandi had also opposed the antisemitic Italian racial laws of 1938. He enjoyed a good relationship with the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III, who gave him the title Count of Mordano.

His increasing criticism of Italy’s war effort saw him dropped from his position in Mussolini's cabinet in February 1943 but he remained chairman of the Fascist Grand Council. In this role, he colluded with others, such as Giuseppe Bottai and Mussolini’s own son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano, to remove Mussolini as leader.

They could see Italy’s war was being lost, with the country suffering more and more following the Allied invasion of Sicily. Grandi and other members of the Fascist Grand Council met on July 24, 1943. When Mussolini said that the Germans were thinking of pulling out of the south, effectively abandoning the country to the enemy, Grandi stood up and subjected the self-proclaimed Il Duce to a blistering verbal attack. 

Grandi served as Italy's Ambassador in London,
where he sought a deal to keep Italy out of WW2

He proposed a motion to the Grand Council asking Victor Emmanuel III to resume his full constitutional authority. When the motion was put to a vote, at 2am on 25 July, it was carried by 19 votes to eight.

This effectively stood down Mussolini from office, although it took his arrest later in the day, after he had been to see the King as if it was business as usual, to enforce his removal. 

Grandi, a law graduate from the University of Bologna who hailed from a wealthy background in Mordano, had met Mussolini for the first time in 1914. Like Mussolini, he had initially been attracted to the political left, but swung in behind the future leader’s nationalist brand of socialism. He joined the Blackshirts - the Fascist party’s paramilitary wing - at the age of 25.

After the March on Rome in October 1922, after which the Fascists took power in Italy, Grandi became part of Mussolini’s government, first as the undersecretary of the interior, then as Minister of Foreign Affairs and later as  Italy's ambassador to the United Kingdom, a position he held from 1932 to 1939. 

He maintained his links with the most radical and violent groups in the party. He surrounded himself with members of the Blackshirts, whom he used as bodyguards.

Despite his role in the fall of the Fascist government, Grandi found himself unwanted by the new regime under interim prime minister Pietro Badoglio and left Italy under a false name, taking his family first to Spain and then Portugal.  In 1944 he was sentenced to death in absentia by a court in the Italian Social Republic, where Mussolini, having been freed from house arrest by German paratroopers, had been installed by Hitler as the head of a puppet Nazi state. 

After seven years in exile, when life at times was hard for his family because of a lack of income, Grandi’s luck changed in the 1950s. He held representative positions for the Italian car maker Fiat and worked as a consultant to the American authorities, often serving as an intermediary in political and industrial operations between Italy and the United States. 

He then moved to Brazil, becoming the owner of an agricultural estate, before returning to Italy in the 1960s. He had a farm in the countryside of Modena before moving to Bologna. He died in Bologna in 1988 shortly before his 93rd birthday, three years after the publication of his political autobiography Il mio paese.

He is buried in the monumental cemetery of the Certosa di Bologna.

Imola's duomo, the Cattedrale di
San Cassiano, in the city centre 

Travel tip:

The city of Imola, like Mordano, is today part of the greater metropolitan area of Bologna, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has a well-preserved castle, the Rocca Sforzesca, which is nowadays the home of an internationally respected piano academy and the Cinema d’Este, which shows films in July and August. Imola also has a duomo, dedicated to San Cassiano. Erected from 1187 to 1271, it was repeatedly restored in the following centuries, until a large renovation was held in 1765–1781. The façade dates to 1850.The city is best known today for its motor racing circuit, the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, which hosts the Formula One Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix and formerly hosted the San Marino Grand Prix, on behalf of the nearby independent republic.

The Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna's
Piazza Maggiore, the heart of the city

Travel tip:

Bologna, where Grandi died, is one of Italy's oldest cities, dating back to 1,000BC or possibly earlier.  The University of Bologna, the oldest in the world, was founded in 1088.  Bologna's city centre, which has undergone substantial restoration since the 1970s, is one of the largest and best preserved historical centres in Italy, characterised by 38km (24 miles) of walkways protected by porticoes.  At the heart of the city is the beautiful Piazza Maggiore, dominated by the Gothic Basilica of San Petronio, which at 132m long, 66m wide and with a facade that touches 51m at its tallest, is the 10th largest church in the world and the largest built in brick. The Certosa di Bologna, where Grandi is buried, is a former Carthusian monastery founded in 1334 and suppressed in 1797, located just outside the walls of the city. In 1801 it became the city’s monumental cemetery.

Also on this day:

1463: The death of historian and archaeologist Flavio Biondo

1604: The birth of Claudia de’ Medici, Archduchess of Tyrol

1966: The birth of opera singer Cecilia Bartoli

1970: The birth of Olympic skiing champion Deborah Compagnoni

Home

Alessandro Cavriani - naval captain

Heroic officer who sacrificed his own life

The destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi was detailed to help
rescue the Italian king, Vittorio Emanuele III

Naval captain Alessandro Cavriani, who posthumously received Italy’s highest military honour after sacrificing his own life to prevent his ailing ship falling into enemy hands, was born on this day in 1911 in the city of Mantua in Lombardy.

Cavriani, who had risen to the rank of corvette captain in the Italian Royal Navy during World War Two, was lieutenant commander of the destroyer Ugolino Vivaldi as Italy prepared to sign the 1943 Armistice with the Allies.

The Vivaldi and her sister ship, the Antonio da Noli, were ordered on September 8 to set sail from Genoa to Civitavecchia, the large port north of Rome, where the following morning they were to pick up King Vittorio Emanuele III, his head of government, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, and about 50 others, and take them to La Maddalena in Sardinia, to prevent their being captured by the advancing German army.

That mission was aborted after the king, informed that the Germans had already captured the road from Rome to Civitavecchia, instead fled in the opposite direction, to Pescara on the Adriatic coast.

The Vivaldi was struck by a missile launched
from a German Dornier DO17 bomber

The Vivaldi and Da Noli were instead sent to join the rest of the Italian fleet at La Maddalena and attack German craft engaged in moving German troops from Sardinia to Corsica.  There, they came under fire from coastal batteries on the Corsican coast.

The Da Noli struck a mine and sank. The Vivaldi, badly damaged, managed to limp away but unable to generate anywhere near its normal speed of 32 knots, it was an easy target for German bombers and was further damaged by a guided missile.

It was not long before the ship’s engines failed completely, at which point the order came for her to be abandoned and scuttled, rather than risk the vessel, which was well equipped with guns and torpedo tubes and could carry more than 100 mines, being seized by the enemy.

As the crew evacuated, Cavriani was one of the last to leave, ensuring all the procedures to scuttle the boat had been enacted, before himself swimming to the relative safety of a life raft. On looking back towards the Vivaldi, he became concerned that the destroyer was still afloat.

Alessandro Cavriani, who
sacrificed his own life

With no regard for their own safety, Cavriani and another crew member, petty officer Virginio Fasan, dived back into the water and swam back to their ship, their aim to open more waterways within the Vivaldi to speed up its sinking. 

After they had achieved that and the Vivaldi began to go down rapidly, he and Fasan appeared on the bridge and saluted the Italian flag, soon disappearing beneath the waters, close to the island of Asinara, off the northern coast of Sardinia. In all, the crew of the Vivaldi had 58 dead and 240 survivors, picked up in the water by German or Allied flying boats.

Cavriani, who had learned his maritime skills at the naval academy in Livorno, had previously been decorated with the Bronze Medal for Military Valour following his success in the battles of Punta Stilo and Capo Teulada. 

Two years after his death he and Fasan were awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour, Italy’s highest military honour.

Livorno's beautiful seafront promenade, the elegant
Terrazza Mascagni, is one of the city's attractions

Travel tip:

The port of Livorno is the second largest city in Tuscany after Florence, with a population of almost 160,000.  Built during the Renaissance with Medici money as an “ideal town”, it became an important free port, and until the middle of the 19th century was one of the most multicultural cities in Italy thanks to an influx of residents from all round the world who arrived on foreign trading ships. Although it is a large commercial port today with much related industry, and also suffered extensive damage as a prime target for Allied bombing raids in the Second World War, it retains many attractions, including an elegant sea front – the Terrazza Mascagni - and an historic centre – the Venetian quarter – with canals, and a tradition of serving excellent seafood.  The Terrazza Mascagni is named after the composer Pietro Mascagni, famous for the opera Cavalleria rusticana, who was born in Livorno.

Cala Sabina is one of Asinara's beaches, notable 
for their white sand and clear waters

Travel tip:

Situated just off the northwestern tip of Sardinia, the small island of Asinara has been virtually uninhabited since the maximum security prison to which it was host for 25 years was closed in 1997. The census of population in 2001 listed just one resident. Part of the national parks system of Italy, the island is mountainous in geography with steep, rocky coasts. It was recently converted to a wildlife and marine preserve and is home to a population of wild Albino donkeys from which the island may take its name.  Asinara can be reached by boat with summer crossings from Stintino and Porto Torres on Sardinia, with some operators offering a day-long excursion stopping at several of the island’s beaches, notable for white sand and clear water. There is a hostel and restaurant in a former prison guards' barracks at Cala d'Oliva.

Also on this day:

1891: The birth of architect Pier Luigi Nervi

1919: The birth of architect Paolo Soleri

1963: Giovanni Battista Montini elected Pope Paul VI

Home