This is the recounting and the diary of my life - Marino Mattei

17.

Orders for our release were given to us late in the evening; at around 8 p.m. Going home for the Piemontesi soldiers [those living in Piemonte where he was stationed] was simple enough but for us Tuscans it was very difficult because we were 400 kilometers from our villages. As I said, my brother Berto was there with me, along with Remo Damiani from Lucignana and another soldier from San Bucologna. We started to think about what to do because the situation was very dangerous. The Germans were taking prisoners and sending them back to Germany.

I had become friends with a Piemontese [a fellow soldier] who was extremely kind. He came to look for me as soon as the captain gave the dismissal orders and he told me I could stay at his house for as long as I thought necessary. He had a large farm and he could give me plenty of work. However, I had already decided to make the trip back home with the others and I could not now leave them alone. When I told him we were a group of four and I couldn't accept his offer, he insisted that we were all welcome to stay at his home. Between discussions and trying to decide what we should do, it soon became nighttime. He did not live far from our camp and[, deciding to go,] we arrived at my friend's farm at 10 p.m. His father and mother were there as well as his wife. They were all very good people and they received us with great hospitality. They gave us something to eat and then we went to bed. The house was attached to the stable where they kept a number of milk cows. The smell was suffocating and there were thousands of flies but, as I said, they were exceptionally good people and I have never forgotten everything they did for us.

They said we could sleep in a barn close by their house but not the one that housed the livestock. That night we did not sleep at all. We were trying to think of a way to get back home. The radio was reporting that many trains had been stopped by the Germans and they were taking everyone prisoner. We didn't know what to do or even how to arrive at a decision. If we made a mistake we also would be captured. This happened to my brother Stefano and he was held for two years in a concentration camp. Many others were captured and killed in these camps.

At daybreak my Piemontese friend and his family were preparing new clothes for all of us so we did not have to wear our uniforms. We had to decide whether to leave or stay for another few days in order to see how things were going. I wanted to remain there but my brother Berto wanted to go. Damiani from Lucignana sided with me and the soldier from San Bucologna said he would do whatever we decided. We studied our options all day but it was very difficult. That night our clothes were ready. They looked like costumes but that did not matter to us. We continued to discuss our choices through the night and finally we decided to leave in the morning on the first train out. Before we left they prepared a good breakfast for us as well as giving us a lot of food for our trip. They too did not know what would happen to us along the way or when we would arrive back at our homes. We said goodbye to my friend and his family and thanked them for being so kind to us and for having helped us in such a difficult time. We then departed.

We intended to take a train at a small railway station near their farm that the Germans had not occupied. Unfortunately, some of us lacked the money needed for the tickets. I don't know how but I did have enough money and I also lent some to those who did not. We arrived at the station. The train was due at any moment. We quickly went to buy our tickets but the Station Captain told us there was no need to pay because all the trains were running for free. We boarded a train that we were going to have to change when we reached Mondovi. [They began their journey in Saluzzo in the Northern Italian region of Piemonte. Mondovi is southeast of Saluzzo, still in Piemonte.] Upon our arrival we saw that there were many German soldiers in the Mondovi station, but none of them noticed us. Soon after we disembarked, the train we had to take for Savona [a coastal city southeast of Mondovi] arrived. We were going to have to change trains there as well.

It seemed like the end of the world when we got to Savona. Thousands and thousands of soldiers, all dressed in odd, ill-fitting clothes. [The word he uses to describe the soldiers is "pappilotti" which is slang for something approximating a fool. Presumably, these soldiers, like himself, had abandoned their uniforms for fear of being captured by the Germans and had dressed in whatever clothes they could find.] It seemed like the Carnevale in Viareggio. [Viareggio is a resort city on the western coast of Italy where they celebrate the "Carnevale" similar to the Venice Carnival. It is located approximately one hour from his village of Gromignana.] The train was running behind schedule and the confusion was maddening. German soldiers holding machine guns filled the station, each one seemingly ready to open fire.

Finally, the train arrived but it was already packed with people when it pulled into the station. Those wanting to board numbered at least 20,000. However, as God wanted it, the four of us were fortunate and we all managed to get on the train. We were like sardines in a can. From there we went directly to Viareggio and then we quickly found another train and at 10:00 that night we arrived in Lucca [the closest larger city to Gromignana]. In Lucca there was a "copre fuoco" [unknown - likely a "lights out" status in the city due to air raids]. We slept at the house of a friend of my father's who he worked with at the Fornaci Metallurgical Plant [see part 1]. In the morning we took the first train to Ghivizzano and we arrived in Gromignana when it was still dark.

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