361st Regiment 91st Division “Liver’n’Onions” - Official Visit
15-19 September 2004
 August and September 2004 saw our group active in organizing the historical exhibition “September 16, 1944”, which centered on the Gothic Line battles of September 1944 in the Giogo pass area. (LINK). This highly successful exhibition was setup also thanks to the Scarperia Agricultural Council, which gave us free use of its former building in downtown Scarperia. Meanwhile, we had come to know that several veterans from the 91st Division would visit the areas of their heroic battles during the fall and winter of 1944. We immediately contacted the Italian 91st Division Association representative in Livergnano, Mr. Umberto Magnani, who wholeheartedly agreed to plan a daylong stop in Scarperia before proceeding North to the “Liver’n onions” of wartime memory. We immediately contacted local authorities to see to it that the veterans would get the honoring welcome they deserved. Then, with the help of the ever collaborative staff of the Florence American Battlefield Monument and Memorial, we met with the veterans there early on the morning of their day in Florence.
After a touching visit to the resting places of so many of their comrades in arms, the veterans and their proceeded with us to Scarperia, where Mayor Sandra Gallazzi officially welcomed them in the historic Palazzo dei Vicari. Our group then proceeded to lunch at the “Il Giogo” restaurant, where, thanks also to the tasty Tuscan cooking and Chianti wine, the already friendly atmosphere cheerfully developed into a very warm occasion for all present. Afterwards, Association President Vincent Macaluso thanked us all in the name of all veterans. Our group, escorted by six wartime Willys jeeps, then proceeded to the 363rd Infantry Monument at l’Omomorto, and finally returned to Scarperia, where our guests visited the exhibition, which received a very rewarding appreciation by our American friends.
The following Sunday, a few of us, accepting the kind invitation by Umberto, met again the veterans in Livergnano, where we spent the afternoon locating the exact location where veterans Raymond Thompson and Chuck Foster had battled in October, 1944. Foster also showed us a photo portraying him and his jeep at la Guarda.
We sincerely thank Umberto Magnani and the tourist association of Livergnano for their kind hospitality. But mostly, we salute again all our new-made friends, veterans and families, who yet again embarked on a long and difficult trip to Italy to remember their past, honor their comrades, and testify their affection and friendship to the people of the Northern Apennines who well remember their sacrifice for liberating our country so many years ago.
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