Festa della Liberazione

On the 25th of April, Massa Marittima celebrated Liberation Day, which every year commemorates the liberation of Italy from fascist government and Nazi occupation, with the aim of reaffirming the values established by the sacrifice of those who fell for their country. So as new Massatanis we of course  attended the festivities.

It began in Piazza Garibaldi, as most of the festivities here do and then the marching band marched the crowd through Cittavecchia, up the hill through the gate in the wall to Cittanova.

Past the organ museum on the right. Don't you love a good marching band?

and at the end of this street we convene at the Parco di Garibaldi in front of the library. I later found out that the park is called Remembrance Park. The monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi was created by the sculptor Ettore Ferrari and was initially placed in the Piazza in 1904, until it was moved here in 1938.

Then the new mayor of Massa Marittima said a few words and ceremonially adjusted the ribbons on the wreath.

then we all paraded to the Parco di Poggio and ended up at the war memorial look out, another one of our favorites. Along the way we bumped into Giacomo, our architect and his daughter Lilia. She was very interested in what made us decide to move to Italy and Massa Marittima. 

I later found out that the sculpture the Monument to the Fallen, is dedicated to the victims of the Niccioleta massacre carried out by Nazi-fascists. It was sculpted by the Carrara artist and former partisan Nardo Durchi in 1964.

Unfortunately, we were not able to understand fully the words that the mayor shared, but Lilia offered to get us a translated copy of the speech as she said the words were 'very beautiful'. Giacomo was very emotional and very proud to point out his uncle in this very famous photo of Massa when the American tanks came to Massa towards the end of World War II, as the Nazis were retreating.

The photo was taken by Corrado Banchi, who you may remember took all the photos that were displayed at the Mining Museum. Giacomo's uncle is the young boy on the right with the dark colored shorts and light colored shirt. 

After the festivities, lunch and piano practice, Andrea and Melissa picked us up at the museum for a walk beyond the outskirts of town. We walked past the Coop and beyond the furthest point in that direction we had ever walked prior. It was a 'Samwise Gamgee' moment, for you LOTR fans. There were more than a few walkers both with and without dogs and oak trees whose cork bark had been harvested. The cork bark will re-grow where it's currently stripped.

Here's what a chunk of the bark looks like

The bark can get really thick. Like this one below. Neat, huh?

A dopo!