WAR TRAIL TREKS
history / environment / food & wine
(three days / two nights)
DAY 1 – VENAFRO
Arrival in Venafro and check-in at the hotel. Guided tour of the Castello Pandone. The castle was built on an original Samnite masonry that later became a Roman fortification. Moreover, in the Lombard period, around the 10th century, a quadrangular enclosure with several towers was built in the same complex, the most visible of which is on the north side of the present-day castle. In 1498, it became a lordly residence thanks to Count Enrico Pandone, who succeeded his father Francesco. Inside the castle, light relief depictions of horses from the Count’s stud farm are still visible, showing their age, breed, name, coat colour and the H symbol, i.e. Henricus’ stud farm. At the end of the visit, we will stroll through the streets of the old town, accompanied by our guide, stopping at the Museo Winterline.
Return to the hotel, dinner and overnight stay.
DAY 2 – MONTE MARRONE – ROCCHETTA A VOLTURNO
Breakfast at the hotel and departure for Castelnuovo al Volturno, the meeting point with the guide to begin the excursion to Monte Marrone, one of the main peaks of the Molise Mainarde, belonging to the Parco Nazionale di Lazio, Abruzzo e Molise and the scene of a fundamental battle for the Liberation that rehabilitated the Italian army in March 1944, garlic of the Allies. On the ascent to the summit, from which you can enjoy a unique view of Molise, we will be able to visit Charles Moulin’s refuge, a stone cave where the French painter born in 1896 spent the last years of his life. The route begins in a beautiful beech forest and then continues through wide open spaces and small woods.
Lunch at a typical restaurant in Rocchetta al Volturno.
After lunch, visit to the International World Wars Museum, where you can see uniforms, military and medical objects, planes and tanks and a remarkable repertoire of weapons from the First and Second World Wars, with a corner also dedicated to the Spanish Civil War.
Return to the hotel, dinner and overnight stay.
DAY 3 – SAN PIETRO INFINE – CASSINO
Breakfast at the hotel and departure for San Pietro Infine, a Campania municipality located on the border between the provinces of Caserta, Isernia and Frosinone. During World War II, it was the scene of three Nazi massacres, and in December 1943, it was contested in a series of battles between the Germans and Anglo-Americans that resulted in the destruction of almost 98 per cent of the settlement and the killing of around 300 civilians. After the war, it was decided to rebuild the town elsewhere, leaving the ruins as a monument to the victims and as a warning for the future. And so the Parco della Memoria Storica (Park of Historical Memory) was born, an open-air museum in which it is the town itself, or rather what remains of it, that is a museum.
We will then continue on to Cassino with a visit to the Polish cemetery housing more than 1,000 Polish soldiers. The tour will end with a visit to Montecassino Abbey, bombed on 15 February 1944 by the Allies who believed it was used by the Germans as an observation point. More than two hundred civilians who had sought shelter, were killed and German paratroopers occupied the ruins. After the war, the abbey was rebuilt exactly as it was before the conflict and was re-consecrated in 1964 by Pope Paul VI.
End of the trip and return home.
INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATION FEE FROM € 240.00
THE FEE INCLUDES:
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PERIOD: ALL YEAR ROUND
