San Pietro

I’ve walked through some pretty hallowed grounds around the world – The Peace Park in Hiroshima, Pompeii (the ancient ruins that were covered and preserved by the eruption of a volcano (mount Vesuvius), and The DMZ in South Korea to name a few, but I’m not sure I’ve seen anywhere as difficult to walk through as San Pietro.

Being from Canada, we seldom understand the real effects of war. No doubt we all have some connection to war through relatives or history channel movies, but what happens when your town, your home, becomes the battleground. The residents of San Pietro know what that is like and their former village is a testament to the wrath of war.

For ten days civilians hid in holes, caves, anything that was not above ground. Women, Children, and the Elderly lasted on whatever they could find – seeds, muddy water. The town was blasted virtually back to the stone age with rubble and debris everywhere.

In one of the most amazing stories and truest anti-war statements of all time, the residents packed up and moved their whole village down the mountain, leaving the remnants of their town as living testament to the realities of warfare (the first photo shows a number of stone walls - those use to be houses and shops). What made San Pietro so difficult to grapple with was the realization that every town, village, and city along the the war path in the hills of Italy was destroyed and in a similar state as the Allies and the Germans battled for control of the boot…

War is real, people die, homes are destroyed, and communities are ripped apart. Sometimes it is difficult to visualize the destruction of war. The official photos and the ones you see on this blog give you but a glimpse of the whole – poignant images that only begin to tell the story.

Our visit concluded with a tour of the town’s museum. Though it was closed, an Italian citizen saw our convoy (when two van loads of English speaking students show up in a small town and your presence is immediately noticed) and arranged for the Museum to be opened – what a powerful statement inside.

Immediately you see a post-modern monument that highlights the construction of the city over a couple thousand of years only to see it destroyed in a matter of ten days. After you walk through the civilian experience, you end up in a theatre. An American Film crew led by Major Ford, captured the devastation of the town as the remaining San Pietro residents emerged from their hiding spots. The video filters through the devastation – Many of the residents, with nothing left from houses that had been the family for centuries, immigrated to the US and Canada following the war. The only element of hope comes from the toothy grins on the faces of the Italian children.

While we are largely here to study the operational and tactical level of operations, it’s the human condition and the ever lasting memory of the conflict that most interests me. The residents of San Pietro have provided a relic in the form of their preserved-destroyed village.

The last couple of posts have been a little intense and that is largely a reflection of this tour. It is academics that has brought us together and it is academics that dominates the inter-group discussions. That doesn’t mean we haven’t enjoyed the Italian delights. Every night we eat as a group and if there is one thing the Italians do better than any other country it’s cook! Last night I enjoyed a mushroom, spinach and cheese pizza, absolutely fantastic! For those of you who are wondering…I’ve been keeping up with my twice a day Gelato routine quite well and it’s only on the odd occasion that I don’t get at least two a day.