This morning  the Mayor of Barga, Marco Bonini  led a procession through the town to commemorate the 4th of  November  along with the Associazione nazionale Alpini and the Associazione nazionale dei Mariani d’Italia.  They laid a wreath at the plaques to  commemorate Leo Giuliani and Fratelli Lombardini in Barga Giardino  before moving on to the Monumento ai Caduti where a final wreath was laid to the sound of the last post played on a solitary trumpet.

The last port of call was the S.S Annunziata church right here in Barga Vecchia which re-opened its doors this morning after being shut for the past two years when falling masonry and plaster made renovation work of vital importance both to the structure itself and of course the congregation below.

That renovation work has now been completed and the so the church is once more fully functional.

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“At the beginning of World War I Italy remained neutral, claiming that the Triple Alliance had only defensive purposes, and the war was started by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, both the central empires and the Triple Entente tried to attract Italy on their side, and in April 1915 the Italian government agreed (London Pact) to declare war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire in exchange for several territories (Trento, Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia). In October 1917, the Austrians, having received German reinforcements, broke the Italian lines at Caporetto, but the Italians (helped by their allies) stopped their advance on the river Piave, not far from Venice. After another year of trench warfare, and a successful Italian offensive in autumn 1918, the exhausted Austro-Hungarian Empire surrendered to the allies on November 4, 1918, soon followed by the German Empire.”

From the giornaledibarganews archives: 2010| 2009 |

This morning, torrential rain did not stop the ceremony taking place as the Alpini raised the flag and placed two wreathes on the monument. One from the Comune of Barga and the other, a wreath of poppies from twinning friends in Preston, Seton and Gosford, East Lothian, Scotland.

Il 4 novembre è la Festa dell’Unità Nazionale e la Giornata delle Forze Armate,

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Il 4 Novembre, una data storica per l’Italia. Data in cui si completava con la fine della Prima Guerra Mondiale, il ciclo delle campagne nazionali per l’Unità d’Italia. Un cammino lungo, durato settant’anni, dalla Prima Guerra d’Indipendenza in avanti.
Un percorso difficile, intrapreso da uno dei Regni preunitari e portato a termine con il concorso convinto della popolazione di tutte le regioni d’Italia, mosse dal desiderio di mettere sotto un’unica Bandiera le sorti della penisola.

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