20th May 2015. From Sei Ponti to Pietrasanta
13.5km
Raining (ma non troppo) & finally clearing but cloudy
Good temperature for walking
Short version: short day’s work at the office today with no great incidents but so many little encounters that you will have to read the longer version if you really want to know more. Otherwise all goes well.
Longer version:
Had breakfast which Giulia had set up in the kitchen, not too bad & ate some puffed wheat with a yoghurt & tea with toast & delicious home-made jams. It seems Giulia trained as a lawyer but can’t get work here so decided to go the Agriturismo route with the support of her parents. Lovely family & if in area is a delightful place to stay. It just started to rain as I was leaving. I was in fact at Sei Ponti (Six Bridges) just outside central Massa so was already on my route out of the city. As Giulia told me I looked out for the six bridges thinking I’d have to count carefully as I was to go under the 4th one, but they were in fact 6 contiguous arches supporting the railway line through two of which it was possible to pass… I walked into Debbia through very nice houses with lovely gardens full of flowers & flowering shrubs & so many fruit trees, especially lemons which were so abundant & also comquats.
On to Prato, where I saw my first little Ape, a 3-wheeled utility vehicle, with an enormous driver emerging from it – one seater I asked? No, two!
Into the bar & newspaper shop for a cappuch with a big pink tulle bow on the mirror to celebrate Carolina, the first grandchild of the bar-woman. Then her parents brought Carolina in, all in pink, & everyone crowded around.
Took up off a steep up-hill road around the castle but it went up and up and on and on (up 200m in altitude) and I realised that the map was not correct ( another letter for me to write when I get home, as there was an error yesterday as well…). There must have been a terrible storm through there with many big trees broken or uprooted or since cut down…
The rain was clearing a little, but still very overcast, and suddenly I could see the sea! Down the other side of the mountain eventually into Strettoia where I saw a big memorial to the Gothic Line and to all civilians who had died classified by type of death: German revenge executions, killed by Allies, de-miners, killed by bombing, killed by mines, killed by air strikes, killed by loose ammunition, killed by unknown means, etc. So what was this Gothic Line of which I’d never heard?***(details below if interested) Walked on to Ripa and across the river to Vallecchia but quickly got off a busy road as drivers were not stopping at pedestrian crossings!
Walked on to Ripa and across the river to Vallecchia but quickly got off a busy road as drivers were not stopping at pedestrian crossings! I wandered into a marble work shop where marble cornices were being cut by one man who let me video the process.
He said the marble rubbish is ground down for the roads, and showed me veneer pieces which were very light for boats (yachts).
All very interesting. I was nearly in Petrasanta and stopped at a green grocer when I saw the vegetable arrangement outside her shop with the message “Have a good day”. She told me that she changes her message every day and has many regular customers who bring her local news (says if she’s closed on Sundays she only hears news on Mondays). She also hangs out pink or blue tulle bows for all children or grandchildren born to her customers, while others then ask her “How many children do you have?” She made me a delicious tuna (nice change!) and home-made tomato sauce sandwich from her brother-in-law’s whole wheat bread which was delicious.
I walked on to my little hotel which was at the entry of the historic centre of Pietrasanta which is a lovely elegant little town with several piazzas. As I had a free afternoon it was great to be able to walk around the town sightseeing. Pietrasanta has Roman foundations but the medieval town was founded in the 13th century and grew to importance during the 15th century mainly due to its connection with marble. Michelangelo was the first sculptor to recognise the beauty of the local stone and I saw a house where he negotiated the purchase of some marble for a special commission in 1518. One does not think that the sea is only 3 km away with Forte dei Marmi being one of the most select beach resorts in Italy (beautiful beach it seems)…
The Romanesque marble facade of the 13th-14th century cathedral, so simple, was one of the most beautiful I have seen, and with a low relief sculpture of our own San Rocco near the main door but showing the wrong wounded thigh!
Inside there is a remarkable marble pulpit with staircase, as well as a very old, simple, and venerated wooden crucifixion. Of course I tasted the local gelati but not as good as I’ve tasted before. After seeing the main sites I sat down in the cathedral square with a view to the hills (which are the last foothills of the Apuan Alps) and had a drink. Forgettable dinner in hotel.
*** from Wikipedia
The Gothic Line (German: Gotenstellung; Italian: Linea Gotica) formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring’s last major line of defence in the final stages of World War II along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italyagainst the Allied Armies in Italy commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander.
Adolf Hitler had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line: he feared the Allies would use amphibious landings to outflank its defences. To downgrade its importance in the eyes of both friend and foe, he ordered the name, with its historic connotations, changed, reasoning that if the Allies managed to break through they would not be able to use the more impressive name to magnify their victory claims. In response to this order, Kesselring renamed it the “Green Line” (Grüne Linie) in June 1944.
Using more than 15,000 slave-labourers, the Germans created more than 2,000 well-fortified machine gun nests, casemates, bunkers, observation posts and artillery-fighting positions to repel any attempt to breach the Gothic Line. Initially this line was breached during Operation Olive (also sometimes known as the Battle of Rimini), but Kesselring’s forces were consistently able to retire in good order. This continued to be the case up to March 1945, with the Gothic Line being breached but with no decisive breakthrough; this would not take place until April 1945 during the final Allied offensive of Italian Campaign.[3]
Operation Olive has been described as the biggest battle of materials ever fought in Italy. Over 1,200,000 men participated in the battle. The battle took the form of a pincer manoeuvre, carried out by the British 8th Armyand U.S. 5th Army against the German 10th Army (10. Armee) and German 14th Army (14. Armee). Rimini, a city which had been hit by previous air raids, had 1,470,000 rounds fired against it by allied land forces.