Updated the 25 September, 2006

Report
Photo Gallery

The Municipality of Scarperia and
The Mountain Community of the Mugello

With the Patronage of the Municipality and the County of Florence

In collaboration with

“The Twin Cities Rally - 2006“ -
SCARPERIA AND FLORENCE (ITALY)
APRIL 22-25, 2006

HISTORICAL MILITARY VEHICLES
AND RE-ENACTORS EVENT
Remembering History - Liberation Day,
62nd Anniversary

1944 The Sherman at Porta Romana (2006 Color picture by Alessio Cheloni)

Since our experience in the organization of the 2001 MV rally in the Tuscan Chianti hills (“La Strada del Cuore, see the article by Dick and Diane Deren from the MVPA Florida chapter, published in Supply Line, September / October 2001 issue) we always hoped to get the chance to set up an even larger event, without sacrificing the key elements of enjoyment and a friendly atmosphere.
A few years have gone by, which, with few exceptions, have not been particularly enticing for the Italian MV scene. Maybe because of this, we noticed from the start that Italian collectors were looking at the “Twin Cities Rally” with a positive attitude, evidencing a wish for an occasion of common enjoyment, which lasted throughout the four days-long event.

Numbers tell a story: overall, 102 vehicles, all of WWII vintage (with the exception of a Guzzi motorbike, and the DKW Munga owned by one of the organizers) participated, alongside about 320 collectors and re-enactors. These are record figures for WWII MV events in Italy. We also had the absolute first – for Italy – of having three M4 tanks in our mid. Not to mention all the other armored vehicles, motorbikes, Kubelwagens and other German and Italian Army vehicles, 2-½ ton trucks, Dodge ¾ and 1-½ tonners, and the ubiquitous ¼-ton trucks of Willys. We leave to pictures the task of telling the story. These are just some short reporting notes.

Saturday, April 22

The day opened under a beautiful sun, which never left us until the end of the rally. Participants started to arrive as scheduled, and proceeded towards hotels, countryside resorts, and less formal accommodations previously booked. Registration formalities were completed, and people began familiarizing with places and fellow collectors. Many friends met again, which had not been seeing each other since Normandy 1999.
We had selected Sant’Agata, near Scarperia, as the base of our rally for no particular reason, but the choice proved a good one. Everybody liked the atmosphere of the medieval section of the town, which has not changed much since the US 361st Infantry regiment of the 91st Division and the German Fallshirmjäger of the 4. Fallshirm – Division had battled in September 1944. Those who did not want to sleep in hotels lodged in the evocative local Pieve, while a convenient bar offered us good and friendly service throughout the event.
At 2:30 p.m., the first motorcade left Sant’Agata towards Pietramala via the Futa Pass.( Everybody, including the Mayor, was waiting for us in Pietramala. Refreshments and snacks were offered, and a small ceremony held honoring the local Monument to the Fallen Soldiers.
The long ride brought out a few hidden mechanical problems, necessitating the intervention of our rescue truck in help of a couple of vehicles.
Meanwhile, in downtown Florence, our friend Sandro Checchi was overseeing the difficult task of seeing to it that the heavy tracked vehicles, which had to be there early next morning reached the safety of the Italian Air Warfare School, which would act as our base for the Florence day of the event.
At 7 p.m., the Pietramala column was back in Sant’Agata, after a visit to the German military cemetery at the Futa Pass on the way back. Everybody assembled for dinner at the Scarperia Sports Association, whose cooks prepared a delicious meal, local style, including a very tasty pasta with wild boar sauce.
The first dinner together cemented the bond among participants. The staff also took the occasion to go over the details of the following day in downtown Florence, which required strict adherence to pre-arranged schedules. Also, people were reminded to follow common sense rules of behavior, which had been set down to assure the good outcome of the event vis-à-vis a number of potential troubles, also political in nature.
We finally went to bed. The rendezvous for Sunday morning was scheduled at 6:30 a.m. when a big gas station near Scarperia for refueling.

Sunday, April 23

At 5:50 a.m. on an unusual Sunday morning, Sant’Agata was alive with activity. Vehicles started to leave for the rendezvous at the gas station, and when we got there, we saw that everybody had taken seriously our recommendations of the previous night. The place was crammed with MV’s waiting their turn at the pumps or undergoing a last mechanical check under the hood.
At 7:15 a.m., we started the long trip to Florence along Highway 65, going the opposite direction than that taken by the advancing Allied armies in September 1944. Civilian traffic was almost nonexistent, and our column uneventfully proceeded through the several towns between Scarperia and Florence. After the last steep climb at Pratolino, Florence finally appeared down below on the valley floor, with the unmistakable shapes of the Brunelleschi Dome and Palazzo Vecchio.
A few minutes more and we reached the outskirts of the city at Trespiano. As agreed, the Florence Police were waiting for us at the city borders, to escort our column to our first scheduled stop at Piazzale Michelangiolo. We hardly arrived downtown from Via Bolognese at 8:45 a.m. when we realized quite a few people, armed with cameras, were already waiting for us along our planned route through Piazza della Libertà. We had seen to it that our rally, the first of its kind in Florence, would get good press coverage, and we had succeeded, but we were surprised nonetheless, as we thought our early Sunday arrival would have gone unnoticed.
We were now riding on the main traffic arteries in Florence – the “Viali di Circonvallazione”. Thanks to our City Police escort (joined by now also by the State Police), red lights were not a problem for our column. We noted again that at our passing the few people that were there immediately took out cameras and mobiles, phoning friends about what was happening. Meanwhile, our friend Paolo Matteoni was overseeing the unloading of the heavy tracked vehicles already at the Air Warfare School since the day before. They would proceed separately, also under police escort, to the scheduled rendezvous point at Piazzale Galilei, beyond Piazzale Michelangiolo, where the rest of us would join them to reassemble the column for our “official” entry down to the “Oltrarno” section of the city at Porta Romana – where Allied troops had actually entered Florence on August 4, 1944. We were just getting to Piazzale Michelangiolo when we received word that the AFV’s were waiting and ready to go.

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IMG 0344 - Picture by Clic & Clic - Scarperia

By the time we got to Piazzale Michelangiolo at the scheduled time of 9:00 a.m., several more vehicles had joined the column arriving from Scarperia. These belonged to collectors who would be with us only for the day. The Piazzale was packed with people waiting for us, and those many tourists who just happened to be there gathered around our vehicles. The sun was up and shining its warmth around. MV owners, re-enactors and visitors mixed in one large crowd. Cameras were busy, and we were literally under siege with questions and comments by everyone around. The elders were particularly happy, and looked around in obvious remembrance of a far away past. Collectors from out of Florence were particularly active in having pictures taken besides the famous Statue of David by Donatello or at strategic points with the background of Florence behind them.
Picture F0132 by Clic & Clic

We departed at about 10:00, and reached Piazzale Galileo in a few minutes, only to discover that some officer had erroneously directed the tanks and other heavy vehicles to move before our arrival at the rendezvous point. The organizers – uttering a few unprintable comments – dashed forward to try to rearrange the whole column as planned. This proved not easily done, as the Viale del Poggio Imperiale, a long, elegant tree-lined avenue leading down to Porta Romana and the historic downtown area of the city, was full of civilian cars. At last, we accomplished the intended result with some effort – Partisans and British troops in the head, then the Shermans and the other heavy vehicles, interspaced with the smaller MV’s, followed by the 2½-ton trucks loaded with re-enactors, and the Axis “tail” with the notable presence of the two rare Italian TL37 an TM 40 tractors.

Foto IMG0332 (Picture by Clic & Clic - Scarperia)

From the vantage point of the downhill Viale del Poggio Imperiale, we realized that the large square at Porta Romana (the Renaissance gateway through the city walls from the South) was literally obliterated by the expecting crowd. There came the final realization that our hope for a warm and friendly participation by the population had indeed materialized, in fact beyond our most optimistic expectations. The thousands of faces surrounding us showed that the hearts of the audience were with us as well as their numbers.

Foto IMG 0378, 0382, 0394, 0399 (Fonte Clic & Clic )

We find it difficult even now to describe our feelings at the moment. We were overwhelmed, both by the circumstances and by the consciousness that this was the crowning of our efforts over the previous months. There they plunged into the crowd, marching through a clapping and cheering audience… here were the nowadays partisans, the British troops, GI’s and Brazilian Expeditionary Force soldiers. It was an intense moment of commotion. Aboard the first jeep in the column was also Mr. Peter Davies from the UK, long-time MVT and MVPA member, who donned, for the occasion, an original British Army uniform that had been worn in Florence, back in 1944, by an English Major by the name of M.P. Lee

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He confirmed to us, as an outside observer, that the warmth displayed by the Florentines was something special.
Behind the first groups, the rest of the column snaked forward at a slow pace… coming were the Chevrolet C15, the Fox I armored car, the Sherman tanks, the White M16 half track, the Ford M8 armored car, and all the other vehicles, with the German and Italian tail including the rare FIAT / Spa TL37 and TM40 tractors.
With the exception of a few motorists, obviously chagrined at being jammed in the traffic (we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience our event produced on anybody’s projects that day!), most of those that had just happened to be there on their way somewhere else by car, were enjoying the show, children being foremost.

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09 JPG Fonte La Nazione

At 10:45 a.m., the Liberation celebrations scheduled in Piazza Tasso began. The real Partisans of 1944, participating with the National Partisans Association, “Oltrarno” Chapter, remembered those past days of sorrow and hope, and their words had a deep and obvious effect on many people crowding the square.

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The memory of the war and its tragedies, as well as the ideals and values linked to the Liberation from Fascism, are very much alive in the Florentines of today, both elders and young ones.
Meanwhile, the column had parked alongside the 16th century city walls in Viale Petrarca, where every vehicle and re-enactor was again assaulted by people asking questions, taking pictures, and expressing admiration for the restored vehicles and period uniforms and equipme

Foto05 JPG Picture by “La Nazione” newspaper

The “Germans” were not less admired than their Allied counterpart was, and in fact, German and Italian vehicles were particularly liked, as people realized their rarity and unique design characteristics. Even if for common-sense reasons of opportunity re-enactors in German uniforms did not participate in the Liberation celebrations in Piazza Tasso, most everybody there understood that ours was not a political event, but rather an occasion to remind people about their history.
With the end of the ceremonies in Piazza Tasso, our day in Florence passed its high point. We reassembled and started, always amid large crowds lining the sidewalks, throwing flowers at us, and looking down from balconies, for the second half of the downtown Florence tour.

We proceeded at a snail pace to Via Pisana and Porta San Frediano, the ancient gateway to the medieval area of Florence South of the Arno River. The old streets hardly seemed large enough to let pass a Sherman tank, the more so because of the many cars parked alongside. We felt uneasy at first, even if we had checked the itinerary beforehand. Everything went well, however. In fact, several people gathering in front of the local pubs were jokingly encouraging us with vernacular expressions impossible to translate, in a typical Florentine vein, to the effect that if the busse [Florentine for bus] could pass, so could we with “just a tank“

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We emerged from San Frediano on the beautiful Ponte Santa Trinita and a broad, open view on downtown Florence, spread in all its magnificence along the silvery waters of the Arno. Such was a moment all of us who were there will remember for a long time. Tourists must have thought along similar lines, as the large flocks of visitors usually crowding that area of Florence in spring seemed to have gathered as if by magic along our planned itinerary. Lungarno Corsini, where the British Consulate in Florence is located, was full of them, and we had to be very careful lest someone gets too close to the rolling tanks taking a sharp turn out of the bridge

Foto 06 JPG Fonte La Nazione

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We slowly left the historical center of Florence and proceeded as planned to the 19th-century Cascine Park, lined again with a cheering crowd. There we reached our final destination at the Italian Air Force Air Warfare School, whence our heavy armored vehicles had departed early that morning.

Once the School gates closed behind the tail of our column, we had the first opportunity to check the number of vehicles participating in the Florence event. Our files contained only the information on pre-registered participants, but many had joined us at the Piazzale Michelangiolo or even along the route. We counted 91 vehicles, and this did not include those people who could not access the military base since they had not undergone a previous security check because they had not pre-registered. This means for sure at least a hundred vehicles participated in the event, an all-time high in Italian WWII MV’s rallies and, we believe, a good result under any standards.

Within the shelter of the military base, our tired bunch proceeded at leisure to lunch, which was served at the officers’ mess. Our large number necessitated double servings, and those who opted for the second turn took their time chatting and generally resting near the parked vehicles. Meanwhile, the Officer of the day informed the organizers that a large crowd was still waiting for us outside the gates. Therefore, we arranged with the City Police escort for the afternoon that once exited the School we would stop for about half an hour along the avenue crossing the Cascine Park to give these late comers their viewing opportunity. Thus flooded by a happy crowd of onlookers one more time, we finally departed for our last trip through Florence, destination Scarperia via the Faentina highway, which had been selected because of its more gentle inclines up to the Mugello area.
Thanks to a very efficient escort service by the City Police, we had no trouble in crossing the main traffic arteries in Florence. Our column was now free to invade the whole four-lanes of the main city avenues – an imposing and exciting view for those of us at the head of the motorcade who could look back over the long stretch of historical vehicles roaring at full speed under a huge overpass of recent construction or over the long stretch of the avenues.

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The route back to base camp was long, and most of us felt by then the tiredness of a long and busy day. But it had been a rewarding experience for everybody. We all felt we had participated to a meaningful experience and contributed to the good outcome of the event. The response by the Florentines and by all others who had attended gave us confidence we had fully accomplished our intended aims. This was further confirmed by the extended and top-evidence coverage given the event by the media and the press on the following days.

Monday, April 24

Waking up on Monday morning was a leisurely affair compared to the day before. Sunday had been a tasking experience, and the good time of the previous day produced a general feeling of satisfaction and relaxation.
At about 8:30 a.m., we departed for another day of enjoyment up and down the beautiful northern Tuscan countryside. Our route for the day entailed a 60-miles long trip. First up from Scarperia to the Giogo Pass, from there we would reach the Colla di Casaglia Pass and proceed down to Palazzuolo sul Senio, where we would have our lunch. The trip back would bring us through Firenzuola and back over the Giogo Pass to base camp.
Mechanical troubles for a couple of vehicles necessitated the attention of our organization, but the balance of our column reached uneventfully the top of the Giogo Pass. Some more vehicles from Imola to the North joined us at the pass for the day.

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Our itinerary from the Giogo to the Colla di Casaglia took us on the main crest trail spanning the divide between the two passes. This 9-mile long trail is usually closed to vehicles, but we had secured a special permission for our event.

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When we reached a more open stretch on the trail, an L5 plane in USAAF camouflage and markings repeatedly flew over our column before leaving with a final tilt of its wings in the customary flier’s salute, thanks to the friendship of a pilot and fellow collector from the nearby Figliano airstrip.
At about 11:00 a.m. we emerged from the trail at the Colla di Casaglia, where we took the road leading down to Palazzuolo sul Senio through the small locality of Quadralto, where a small refreshment stop was planned. We stopped in small Quadralto as planned, enjoying the rest and the refreshments offered us by the local community.

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Then we departed for our midday destination of Palazzuolo sul Senio, where we parked our vehicles in the two typical town squares near the Senio river and in front of the Municipal building, welcomed again by the locals, and proceeded after a while to our lunch at the Hotel Europa, where a tasty meal was served.
After lunch, we welcomed the chance to mix with the people of Palazzuolo.
 

Palazzuolo sul Senio - Picture by Peter Davies

Time came again for our departure for the final trip back to Scarperia. Our route took us up through the Faggiola Pass, a steep secondary road traversing more beautiful locations, then down to Firenzuola and the harsh landscape of Santerno Valley. Our vehicles, including the little German Kettenkraftrad, proved again their mechanical worthiness and we got to Firenzuola without any trouble. A short stop for refueling at a local gas station, and then up again to the Giogo pass, this time coming from the North. There we had our last stop for the day. Our MV's were then free to proceed individually down to Scarperia and a welcome rest before dinner, while the organizers provided the needed escort to the larger vehicles such as armored cars to base camp in Sant’Agata.

Tuesday, April 25

The final and crowning day of the event started under the welcome monotony of a bright sunny sky. No long trips were scheduled, as this was the day of the official Liberation celebrations in Scarperia. While the balance of our MV’s proceeded to the nearby Luco di Mugello, where they were greeted with a heartily display of cheerfulness and treated again to a small refreshment, the M4 tanks drove the few miles from Sant’Agata to the outskirts of Scarperia, where they waited together with the other tracked vehicles the arrival of the column from Luco.
The local population turned out en masse with the usual cheerfulness. Also, the wide echo of our day in Florence brought to Scarperia quite a lot of Florentines and tourists who had missed the Sunday event or wanted to get a new chance to attend.
Fewer vehicles than in Florence participated, but their nonetheless sizeable number, and the presence of the big brothers – tanks, armored cars, half track and scout car, 2 ½-ton and other types of trucks, etc., made for another imposing show.
Everybody cheered, and clapped or weaved their hands welcoming us.

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Our vehicles parked in the Piazza dei Vicari and along Scarperia’s main street, and we listened to the speeches delivered by the Mayor of Scarperia and the President of the Mugello Mountain Community, and by the President of the “GoticaToscana” Association, representing the organizers of the event, who explained the meaning we attached to events such as ours.
It was by now time to gather for our final, farewell lunch, while our vehicles were left in exhibition in Scarperia under proper surveillance.

At the end of this short chronicle, we want to extend our most sincere thanks all Public Administrations, associations, groups, individuals, enterprises, that have collaborated with us for making the event the success it was.

Anything unexpected might have happened, jeopardizing the good outcome of our project, but everything went well after all. To the many who have already spurred us to organize some similar event future event, we can only answer that we will try, but that will not be an easy thing.

Gotica Toscana Onlus, Scarperia
 

1945 Florence, the Ponte Vecchio area.
Picture by Gabinetto Fotografico della Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici

The event is also part of the 700th century celebration of the foundation of Scarperia.

Grazzini Cav. Fortunato S.p.a. Firenze Carrozzeria C.G.M. Di Chemeri Masolini E Villani 50037 San Piero A Sieve (FI)

03 Aug. 1944 Florence - Kesserling on the Ponte Vecchio bridge
Picture by Budesarkiv Koblenz

1944 A British soldier in Florence
Picture by Imperial War Museum

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