The tale of the town

I thought I'd share some images of the place I am staying. The views here are just spectacular. The mountain range is the Molisan Mainarde, which are part of the Appenines. The mountains closest to the town, Monte Marrone and Monte Mare were occupied by the German army during the second world war and it is still possible to find German foxholes and trenches, testimony of the advances made by the Italian Liberation Corp during the spring of 1944. The Italian Liberation Corp was the first Italian-led battalion to fight on the side of the allies and it was at Colli a Volturno that the leadership of the battalion changed from French to Italian, as Colli was used as the headquarters of both the Axis and the Aliied leadership. The battalion was made up of Alpine forces who knew how to fight in the mountains, and it was these soldiers who made the break-though in the 9 month battle for Monte Cassino and the Gustav Line, where the German soldiers used their positions in the higher ground in the mountains to keep the allies at bay. Over the 9 months, over 90,000 allied soldiers and 65,000 axis soldiers were killed.

04 September 2025