While in Italy, we have been following the Italian campaign path from 1943 onwards. I've learned many things that I wouldn't have been able to learn in a class room. Italy is a country that was struck by war and still has signs of that war. Through out this trip we have witnessed many war torn cities, and within these cities are unchanged buildings damaged by gunfire.
Remnants of WWII are difficult to find in Italian cities. As you walk through the towns, such as Rome, Ortona and Orsogna, around Italy you may not see them unless you know they're there and know what they look like.
At first I found it strange that they would leave these buildings with bullet holes in them around the cities and not try to cover them up to match the more modern buildings. Why keep something that would remind you of terrible times? But Cindy then told a story that has stuck with me since the start of the trip about the Germans in Rome.
The Germans would march up the street of Via Rasella in Rome everyday around the same time stomping their boots striking fear to those who could hear them. One day a couple disguised a bomb in a garbage can and set it off just as the Germans turned the corner to march up the street so it would strike the middle of the pack. The Germans immediately opened fire when the bomb went off on the nearby buildings leaving bullet holes in the walls which we can still see today.
This story opened my eyes as to why the buildings covered in bullet holes may still be standing. To me it shows to those who know what happened in these locations what the Italians once endured and how they can band together and recreate their cities and accept what happened in the past. How they can accept what has happened and not reminisce about it but move on and remember that things could be worse.
Katelyn Kelly