2015 - Tenna Valley Trail
The Tenna Valley Trail 6-11 May 2015
The group arrived from the far flung corners of the world, by air, rail and road; from the UK, Australia, the Veneto and Sicily. A smaller group than originally booked (the Trail coincided with the Election and VE Day celebrations), but an enthusiastic group nevertheless. A few familiar faces returning from last year and others for the first time. Myles, Charles, Roger, Boris, the Haughie’s, the Stewart’s, Brian Lett with Gus, Gillian, Eleanor, Anne, David, Rob and Steffi to be joined by locals Ian, Giuseppe, Paolo and others.
We received a very warm welcome from Alessia and the staff at the San Marco Hotel in Servigliano (which has undergone a major refit, with work in progress). On the Wednesday evening the party assembled at the Casa Della Memoria Museum [the town’s old railway station adjacent to PG 59] with a musical greeting from the Northumbria Army Cadet Force ‘Cassino’ Band who were on a supporting concert tour of the area. To the delight of the assembled overseas visitors one of the numbers played was the theme tune from the film ‘The Great Escape’. The band proved to be a popular attraction and soon drew a crowd of local people. Following the band concert, members, guests and casual visitors retired to the museum where, after welcome speeches, Giuseppe Milozzi and Ian McCarthy introduced local people whose families had hidden escapers in the area during the latter stages of 1943 and 1944 and we listened to their stories. We finished off the evening with an excellent dinner at the San Marco, washed down with several bottles of local wine.
The weather when we arrived was very warm, sunny and dry, the local temperature recorded 31C during the afternoon. Everything was set fair for the walk. Thursday morning dawned with a cool breeze and rising temperatures. We formed up at the Camp entrance and began our walk to Monte San Martino. Unfortunately, the flow rate of the Tenna River was too fast for safe crossing (as I subsequently discovered!), so the road route was the only option for the first part of the walk. It is little things like that, that remind us that those who had sought freedom during WW2 had to cross obstacles regardless of the state of the obstacle, or the weather, or their own physical condition.
The group stopped short of the village to have lunch as guests of the Barcetta family whose daughter, Lucia, had been the recipient of a bursary from the Monte San Martino Trust. We were entertained by the family with food, wine and music and it was mid-afternoon before we reached the square of Monte San Martino.
There in a simple ceremony a wreath was laid on the war memorial by the Mayor and Roger Stanton, ELMS Director. The Cassino band gave another excellent concert in the town with Sgt Brian Hindmarsh giving a first class rendition (as usual) of the Last Post and Reveille.
Friday was again a cool start, but during the morning’s walk it warmed steadily. The route took a via a so called ‘white road’, (a gravelled track off main roads) past the Olive Press and strawberry fields heading ever higher towards Montappone and Massa Fermana. The story of the day was of Ray Ellis and his contempories who had been hidden locally. During the break at Montappone a local family renewed their connection with escapers, sharing the book of memories sent to them by local helpers.
Saturday followed a familiar pattern and we set off at about 8.30am from the camp gates and headed towards Montelparo via white roads, shady woods and a very steep incline to arrive in the village for lunch in the undercroft of the old abbey. The group had grown in number on the way with the addition of local residents and the remainder of the Hill family from Australia [David was walking for all the family]. After the telling of the family’s story and the connection with Sidney Smith, the Royal Signals soldier executed by the SS near the town, the group made its way to Sidney’s memorial for a wreath laying. An ELMS wreath was laid by Roger together with Valeriano Ghezzi, the Mayor and Christina Franca, who with her family had been placing flowers on Smith’s memorial for over seventy years. We returned by road via various properties of ‘escaper’ significance and visited other families who had hidden escapers.
The final day, Sunday was a day for memorial visits, meeting families who had assisted escapers and wreath-laying. A change to the programme this year was a visit to Offida where, at the town hall, Prof Rainieri delivered a simple lecture on the ‘Rat-Line’ (usually the chain of safe house/locations through which escapers were moved on their way to freedom). Following the informative lecture the group moved onto the Villa Stipa for lunch provided by the local Partisan/Escape Line veterans Association. An ELMS wreath was laid on the Partisan/Resistance Memorial at the villa. The villa had been the beginning of the Rat Line heading south where a number of escapers had been hidden. Following an excellent lunch the group moved onto a very familiar location, the Villa Salvadori, another safe house, quite close to the sea, which had hidden numerous escapers over a long period of time. The present owner, Clara Muzzarelli Formentini had invited a number of other safe-house families to the villa, and provided food and drinks for everyone. She also gave the visitors a short talk on the villa and its involvement with escapers during WW2. Our last port of call on Sunday afternoon was to visit the site of the former POW camp, PG 70 at Monte Urano. Most of the original buildings are still standing and at its peak the camp had held over 8000 POWs. Following the declaration of the armistice on the 8th September 1943 the POWs were ordered to remain in camp by their SBO. This was to prove to be a catastrophe for the majority, who were quickly transported to other POW camps in Germany and elsewhere. Some did escape and there is a report elsewhere on the website of one such story. After a long and tiring day the party returned to Servigliano and enjoyed a superb farewell dinner at the San Marco Hotel.
On the route back to the UK the support crew visited the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Rimini and laid an ELMS wreath on Sydney Smith’s grave.
Steve Sims