APRIL 26th 2017

On April 26th 2017 we met Professor Patrizia Bianchetti who is in charge of the “Isola degli Spinaroni” memorial. She told us about the history of the island, which was used as a shelter by the partisans of Romagna.

In 1943 Italy signed the armistice with the Allied Forces and was helped by the American army against the German occupation. The liberation began from the south; meanwhile, in the north, German soldiers were organizing punitive reprisals. As a consequence, the partisans were born, a group whose objective was to resist against Germans. Unfortunately, they had limited supplies at their disposal, so the best they could do was to blitz enemies’ platoons, even if such actions were going to cause Germans’ revenge against civilians. Partisans were forced to hide in the mountains or, in this case, in particular places like “Isola degli Spinaroni”. This island is situated about a kilometer from Porto Corsini, hidden by a dense vegetation wall which makes it impossible to be spotted from long distance. Thanks to its position, civilians were able to help the partisans, because they could bring supplies without being discovered. Moreover, we were also told about all the most important events of that period, so we could better understand what happened.