8.5.2012
The Florence American Cemetery
Yesterday on our wine tour we wanted to make the most of our day in the country “before the sun goes over the yard arm” and so we took our American guests to visit various non-wine related places near Florence.
Our first stop was this amazing 70 acre site, framed by woodland and carefully maintained for posterity, to offer solace to the many Americans who come to pay their respects to over 4,400 fallen friends and family.
There are two wings of white crosses arrayed in symmetrical curved rows upon the hillside – they look beautiful under the Tuscan sun – and it seems a rather wonderful final resting place.
This huge cemetery only represents 39% of the U.S. Fifth Army who died after the capture of Rome in June 1944 whilst the Allies made their way up the peninsula of Italy.
Sadly there was particularly heavy fighting, and therefore Allied losses, in the Apennines Mountains only months before the war’s end – when the enemy troops finally surrendered on May 2, 1945.
When the Allies arrived in Florence they found all the bridges destroyed by the retreating Germans – except the Ponte Vecchio – and the route to the Ponte Vecchio was blocked by the rubble of many beautiful Pallazzi destroyed on the South side of the Arno leading to the bridge. It is for this reason that Florence now has newly built houses around the Ponte Vecchio.
The bridges had to be rebuilt, and it was the Black US soldiers, who at that time were rarely allowed into regular combats units, who undertook the difficult, but ultimately satisfying, task of recreating these beautiful symbols of Florence.
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