Archive for the ‘ things from the past ’ Category

We travelled to Cesena, a town near our base. We were welcomed by the mayor and an elder partisan.


After a lunch for 350 seats, we parked in Pinarella di Cervia and prepared a more choreographic entry in Cervia, with people dressed as Germans (and who speak German, they are very pro!) who waited us and after fled to the sight of tanks (two Sherman and other vehicles). I was on the jeep, at the end of the column, so I couldn’t see the action, I have to wait for the release of the official dvd of the event to understand what happened.

More videos. I saw a lot of people who took photos and films of us. The availability of mobiles with great cameras turned people in media producers. Here the entry in Pinarella di Cervia parking. You can see me while I’m using my mobile on a camion. And finding on my video who is filming me.

Half an hour after we left. And some tanks were with us.

Here we were in Cervia, in the main phase of the event, with more audience, more reenactors who reached us, another authorities speech, displays. And a lot of chatting with other people: locals and lovers of reenactment. It is not only a show with strange people dressed as military troops, but the opportunity to confront ourselves with other people, and to know more on history, personal history and passions.


Fuel of a different kind.

Heavy steel…

This one was a rattletrap used as artillery target, now reconditioned after a lot of hard work. Probably it is the only exemplar of marching AB 40/41/43. This one is the last type, the AB 43, built in North Italy under German occupation for RSI forces and also known as Panzerspähwagen AB43 201(i).



Later we reached a huge restaurant with more than 500 seats. At the end we finally fell asleep. The day after there was a long trip along the Via Emilia but we went back home, with a stop. More on a next post.

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We were 350 people dressed to war (but only for love of history) and with a lot of vehicles. We based ourselves in Cervia. A bus service collected us along the road from the hotels to concentrate in a municipal deposit. It was strange to see a bus full of people with helmets and automatic weapons. Here the start of the event in the morning. Later I’ll show you when we started to move to reach Cesena and Cervia city centres.







A column is a long strip made of vehicles and people that move at the velocity of the slowest. Often we were stopped by something but we didn’t know what. A boring thing. It is not lack of organisation, it is the reality of a large amount of troops that have to travel. As the logistic problem to find an area to park all this. And the queue to the petrol pump. I heard that to start a Sherman you must consume 20 litres. We had to collect money for the fuel, because these old cars have a high necessity of it. Moreover, when a vehicle is out of order, the first thing to do is to throw out it off road. We were not so cruel, but I saw some blocked in the rear for mechanical problems. The column march towards glory consuming itself…



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This is the biggest WWII reenactment event in Italy, Colonna della Libertà (Liberty Column), an opportunity to celebrate the official day of the end of the war in Italy with a military column constituted by military vehicles and troops of that historical period, with a prevalence of jeeps and other Allies materials.

Every year a different location. This year, for the first time, I had the possibility to participate with my friends to the event, but only for the 28th of April, a column visit to Cesena and Cervia. We had Italian uniforms of the South Reign, the part of Italy that after the end of the Italian nation, the infamous 8th September, passed to Allies side. A nice gentleman from Verona offered us a passage on his jeep. Here you can see a video about our trip along the column. More on next posts.

If you want to know more on this event you can examine the official programme.

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Legionaries march – the video

Another view on the Roma’s dies natalis. This time it is a full video!

I own a great mobile, a Sumsung Wave, with a great camera. I took some photos and some videos. I thought that those images could be over my personal interest, so I showed them to you on this blog. Then I had these small videos but I didn’t know what to do with them. So I bought an app for my iPad, the Avid Studio one, and within an hour I created a video. It was intuitive and simple. In the future I will took more videos for my blog. Enjoy the legionaries march!

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Pompa magna

Another set of photos from the Roma’s dies natalis. This time I show you a gladiator procession, the “pompa magna”. Some are spectacular others are not so philologically exact but the spirit is all.








In the afternoon some fights were played in the arena but I preferred to fight at home, playtesting the rules for retiarii vs antiretiarii. Ferrum et Gloria is a priority!

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2765 Ab Urbe Condita

A lot of years ago (2765 to be exact), the 21th of April, a groove around some hills was traced to mark the territory of a new founded city. That city is my home.

In this date there is a celebration with a reenactors march around the Palatinus and the Capitolium to homage our ancestors. It isn’t a political moment but a festival for who is interested in ancient Roman times. And an occasion to make an holiday under our Sun and among our past glories (at present we don’t have actual beautiful things to admire, sorry). I suppose this is the largest event for this type of reenactment. This year we had guests from a lot of places, as Germany, Czeck Republic, Slovakia, France, Nederlands, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, United Kingdom, Georgia and obviously from every part of Italy. We are all sons of Roma.

I took some photos to show you the manifestation at its start on the site of Circus Maximus. I concentrate myself on legionaries but there were a lot of other people, this is only a fragment of the event. Enjoy.























To know more go to the programme.

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Anzio beach 68 years after

In exactly the same days and the same beach of the landing but 68 years after. It was a two day revocation, during the 21th and 22th. Me and other chaps of the historical group of ANPdI (the national association of military paratroopers) made a display during the public commemoration of the event, showing that even Italian paratroopers were in combat for their country.

Trenches on the seaside.

German equipment in trench.

German cars.

Czechs dressed like Scottish? I don’t know, because one guy (not present in this photo) was wearing his original clan tartan.

The amphibious star of the event. It was sailing back and forth on water and sand. The man with the coat in the front of the vehicle is a Austrian paratrooper war veteran. He told us some personal war histories. He is even a choirmaster, so some people improvised with him some traditional German song. There was another war veteran, from Battaglione Guastatori Alpini “Valanga” X^ MAS. When we made him the military honours shouting the battle cry some tears spilled from his eyes.

Here we are on the south side of the beach. The harbour is at the end of the photo. Nowadays the pier is longer. On the seaside you can see the encampment for the display. During the summer here there are seaside resorts. Another display was in Nettuno, but only with reenactors in American dresses.

We made our Italian paratroopers display here. This is the casino. It still maintain his vintage luxury style. Some trainees from local Hotel School prepared and served the lunch for us. A strange situation: served from livered people at a table with an Austrian war veteran while I was with machine gun loaders on my chest and a dagger in my belt.

Royal Navy flag and a display of Allied materials, as this Bren gun.

The German display and a view on the photographic exhibit on the landing.

German steel.

Anti-tank weapons.

Our display with only materials made in Italy. And among them our MAB machine guns, Breda machine gun, helmets, all immersed in our old national camouflage pattern. We spoke about the Italian presence on this front. Some people wanted to tell us about their childhood years, remembering the bombed house at the port where they lived, or their relatives died in the conflict. Obviously people often didn’t recognise our uniforms because all thinks this was an affair only between Americans and Germans. Some people stopped me because they don’t like so much our uniforms, other instead liked them too much for political reasons. I live this thing with a historical perspective and nothing more.

Our paratrooper war veteran, the immortal Santo who fought in El Alamein battle.

Some beautiful models for you.

Angry cats: Tiger und Panther.

Jagdpanther.

More modest and compact Italian tank. You must had more courage if you fought in these little boxes.

And after the toys and people dressed like soldiers, a real aspect of war, the German war cemetery that we visited in the morning. People who died for the defence of another country, people sent to fight a war that they hadn’t declared, people who rest under pines and cypresses.

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Magna Con Phersu: Universal Carrier

More photos about the ruined Universal Carrier on the grass of the entry of “Città della Domenica” in Perugia.



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