“The best gift we can give ourselves, our children and whoever comes this April 25, is to make an effort to remember all the stories we have encountered along the way”. The comment
Today we celebrate the 78th anniversary of the Liberation of Italy. Looking closely, this one it’s our day of remembrance: the day when homage is paid to the partisans of every front who, starting in 1943, helped to free Italy from Nazi-fascism. The story is known. The action of Resistence it was coordinated by the National Liberation Committees formed in Rome, starting on 9 September 1943. Initially composed of just over 1500 men and women, then gradually more and more widespread and numerous – we must not forget that alongside them there was the direct participation of the civilian population, – the partisans helped to free many areas even before the arrival of the allies.
One of them is Milano.How many testimonies have I gathered from relatives, family friends, wayfarers who wanted to entrust to me, a bottle in the middle of the sea, a trace of their memoryof their passage on earth. Stories of relay races, of courage, of crazy bike rides, dodging bombings, machine-gun fire, just to deliver a dispatch; of forced marches to escape, to attack, or to escort some poor persecuted wretch across the border. All stories that deserve to be written. And I did it, in one of my books, hidden Milan, published by Hoepli (Retrieve the review link here). Today I confess to feeling a little unease.An uneasiness that smacks of lack: because if someone tells you a story, then that story also lives in you, it’s a bit yours. And if you don’t write it down and tell it, you’re a waste. And I couldn’t tell them all.
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