In the town it is known as Piazza Fiat but the actual name for the car park down at Barga Giardino is Piazza Sandro Pertini. Today comune workmen started work on clearing up some of the area, removing broken brickwork around the tress which supply the shade in the summer and repainting the white lines for the parking spaces but maybe some background information on just who was Sandro Pertini would be in order.
Alessandro (Sandro) Pertini; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist, who was the seventh President of the Italian Republic from 1978 to 1985.
After 25 April 1945 (the end of the war in Italy) he was elected to the first Parliament of the new Italian Republic (the parliament which created the modern Italian Constitution), the Constituent Assembly or La Costituente. In the postwar era he was a prominent member of the directive board of the Italian Socialist Party (the PSI, which the PSU had rejoined).
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What does today’s Resistance consist of? For this I plead with young people: defend our hard won positions! Defend the Republic and democracy! What I mean is today we need two qualities, my dear friends: honesty and courage. I appeal to young people: be honest first of all, politics must be done with clean hands! If there’s any scandal, if anyone plays politics for his own vile interest, he must be reported without hesitation —Sandro Pertini
In spite of his intransigent attitude toward the Italian Communist Party, Pertini was suspicious of many policies enforced by the PSI. He criticized all forms of colonialism, as well as corruption in the Italian state and within the socialist party, where he kept an independent political position.
He was appointed president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1968, and in 1978 President of the Italian Republic, the highest office in the Republic. As President he succeeded in regaining the public’s trust in the State and institutions. During the Brigate Rosse terrorism period of the Anni di piombo, Pertini was a defender of the institutions he represented.
His death in Rome was viewed by many as a national tragedy, and he is arguably one of modern Italy’s most accomplished politicians. In December 1988 Pertini was the first person to be awarded with the highly regarded Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, DGVN) in Berlin, “for outstanding services to peace and international understanding, especially for his political ethics and practical humanity.” – source