A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy: Museums, Monuments, and Battlegrounds - Paperback

by Donald R. Waful (Author), Anne Leslie Saunders (Author)

WHICH EDITION TO BUY?
The author recommends buying the second edition of this book. Its cover photo (used on its Amazon page) shows three soldiers gazing out toward the photographer. This edition, published in 2016, begins with the Allied landings on the coast of Sicily.

The first edition (2010) is no longer printed, although used copies are sold on web. It has a red and green cover and describes fewer sites than the second edition.

MUSEUM SCHEDULE CHANGES:
Many of the sites described in this book are outside and may be visited during daylight hours. However, museums and a few of the cemeteries have more limited hours, many of which have changed since this book was published in 2016. For that reason, please check websites and/or e-mail, phone or text the places you wish to visit to check current hours.

MAPS
Directions are given for all sites, as well as addresses and GPS coordinates. To create a personalized map, plug the addresses or coordinates into your cell phone, tablet, or computer.

SUMMARY (2nd edition, 2016)
Chapter 1 describes Italy's role in WWI, the rise of Fascism, and Italy's alliance with Germany during World War II.

Chapters 2 and 3 focus on museums and memorials honoring American, British, and Canadian troops along Sicily's southern and eastern coasts, where Allied armies landed and began the Italian campaign in 1943.

Chapter 4 covers the subsequent landing of Allied forces near Salerno, where the U.S. Fifth Army met stiff resistance from German forces. Several memorials and museums mark those events.

Chapter 5 focuses on memorials in and near the city of Cassino, where German forces blocked the Allies' advance toward Rome. Included are war cemeteries, battle monuments, and the famous Abbey of Montecassino, which was destroyed during the war and afterwards rebuilt.

Chapter 6 concerns the Allied landings at Anzio and Nettuno, towns an hour south of Rome. Here an American cemetery and two Commonwealth cemeteries honor the thousands who died in Sicily or southern Italy.

Chapters 7 and 8 are devoted to World War II sites in Rome. These include the Basilica of San Lorenzo, which was damaged by bombs in 1943 and rebuilt soon after the war. Other locations include an apartment building (now museum) used as a prison during the German occupation, and the Jewish Museum, which has exhibits about the deportation of Roman Jews to concentration camps.

Chapters 9--13 describe memorial sites in or near Orvieto, Florence, Lucca, and various mountain villages, as well as selected Gothic Line battlegrounds. The latter have the remains of bunkers and trenches. Noted also are monuments to combat on Battle Mountain, where Allied and German troops clashed for over a week in the fall of 1944. Today the top of the mountain has commemorative plaques and statues.

Chapters 14--17 focus on memorials to units of the British Eighth Army, which from 1943 to 1945 forced German armies to retreat up the Adriatic coast and then inland to Bologna.

Chapters 18--20 provide tours of WWII sites in or near Bologna, and Trieste. Several national monuments are described in detail, including those that honor Italian civilians and the Italian Resistance.

Appendix: Excerpts from the journal of Donald Waful, an American soldier who was a prisoner of war in Italy for close to a year

Author Biography

Anne Leslie Saunders is a research associate at the College of Charleston, where she taught for twenty years. Her other publications include the translation of a book about WWII combat in Tuscany. She has a BA from Wellesley College, MA from Columbia University, and PhD from the University of South Carolina.