Walking and discovery

The plant of the photo is with me since fifty years: it is satisfied with little, and waits for me. It is enough that I go back to her every now and then, to give her the little she needs, and every year she blooms that way.
When hiking we go slowly and have time to look around.
For long time I did not notice that in all the smallest. almost deserted hamlets of the mountains there are memorial stones and monuments, speaking of war victims, of World War I. Then, when I started the adventure of “più di 1000”, trying to go slowly, leaving from villages and crossing villages, I started noticing them

A war memorial in Vico Pancellorum, a small centre of river Lima valley

The war memorials

Quite a lot of memorial stones  are also placed in all our cities, but there we go fast, so we do not see them. These long rows of names seem normal things, among the crowd. In small hamlets I sometimes ask somebody how many people are still living there. Then I compare the numbers they say to the list of names on the memorials, and try to find a rationale: OK, one century ago much more people lived there, so there is nothing strange. But the victims were young men only, so there is no rationale, numbers are not balanced.

After WW1, another war came: the name of its victims were often added to the monuments. As a matter of fact, their numbers are almost always lower than the ones of WW1 victims, contrary to what we generally believe.
And this second official war generated another one, fought somewhat underground. And this one left its memorials, as well, often only stone with names. The official ones are lost in the crowds of our cities. Plenty of them, the ones of local victims, are scattered along our Apennines. Most times they also speak about the enemy. This war was won, at the end. So, many, many enemies died, as well.