Rome and Central Italy
-- Frank Barrett, Mail on Sunday
Explore monumental, all-conquering Rome and go beyond the Eternal City's ancient gates to discover what lies outside them--volcanic lakes, beaches and islands, refined hill towns, Etruscan tombs and the high, snowy peaks of the Apennines.
Hand-picked and special places to stay and eat, easy-to-use maps, clear layout and rich cultural background detail combine with reliable advice on everything from castles and monuments to pizzas and piazzas.
Captivating tales of heroic poets, colorful popes, ruthless emperors and fascinating antiquities combine to make a guide that is as interesting as it is dependable.
Excerpt: Montecassino, 1944
After the invasion of Sicily, people all over Italy felt the sudden menace of the troops and the bombs that would undoubtedly be coming their way. But Mars, whose actions are notoriously unpredictable, decreed this time that central Italy would suffer the worst. The Allied landings at Salerno, followed by the uprising of the people of Naples, occasioned a quick German withdrawal to the hastily built fortifications of the Gustav Line, which stretched from the River Sangro in the Abruzzo to southern Lazio. There it was anchored on the heights of Montecassino, a mountain that was crowned by the most famous monastery in Christendom.
When the Allies reached Montecassino, they could not count on simply getting around it. The landings at the Anzio beachhead were in a precarious state, and the Allies had to hit the Gustav Line hard to take pressure off the beleaguered troops further north. On 15 February 1944 the Americans sent B-17 Flying Fortresses to drop 287 tons of bombs on the monastery. ...click here to read the rest
Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls can be reached at: michel.pauls@wanadoo.fr
