The Widows of the Frontier: the Engravings (2)

 Near the pass and along the mule tracks leading up from Ceresole Reale, it is still possible to identify the ruins of the former barracks and stone military posts, - and the engravings

When the waiting finally ended

There’s a second date worth setting beside Chaberton’s, further along the same wall of concrete and silence, three years later. On the night of 8–9 September 1943, hours after Italy’s armistice with the Allies was announced, a GAF colonel named Giovanni Jon — a Piedmontese, in command at Tarvisio on the wall’s opposite end, facing not France but the sudden, unwanted new enemy of Germany — sounded the alarm and gathered his men on the barracks square. He read them Marshal Badoglio’s proclamation and told them, in effect, that their war was starting now. None of the roughly three hundred men present objected. They held the position against an attacking Waffen-SS regiment for six hours. Twenty-four of them died there; forty-eight more were wounded.

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The Widows of the Frontier: Waiting for a War That Never Came (1)

 Emotional toll of Alpine Warfare. Look up. The mountains before you represent more than just indescribable beauty. They represent the pain and toil of their defenders.

Above Lago Agnel, at 2,300 metres, the ground stops pretending to be gentle. To the right, Punta Violetta climbs to 3,031 metres. To the left, lower and less dramatic, Colle Agnel sits at 2,510.

And somewhere between the two, tucked along the old military track before the Colle del Nivolet, a square of broken stone and concrete is still holding its shape against the mountain.

It doesn’t look like much. A collapsed wall here, a firing slit there, half-buried in rock that the retreating glaciers polished smooth ten thousand years before anyone thought to build on it. You could walk past it and mistake it for a shepherd’s ruin. It is, in fact, a listening post — a small fragment of one of the strangest defensive projects Italy ever attempted: the Vallo Alpino del Littorio.

A wall that was never tested

In 1931, with the memory of the First World War still raw and the newly built Maginot Line rising across the French border, Mussolini’s general staff ordered the construction of a defensive system that would eventually stretch the length of Italy’s Alpine border — from Ventimiglia on the Ligurian coast to Fiume on the Adriatic. It was meant to make the frontier, in the language of the original directives, “hermetic.” Impenetrable.

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It Takes Very Little to Become a Believer, in the Alps

 A classic survival yarn: the mountain has been testing people who think they own a piece of it

Up on the plateau, where everyone goes, there are lakes scattered everywhere. Normal people climb up from Rifugio Savoia and walk straight ahead, toward whichever lake the trail signs point to that day.

I, as usual, did not do what normal people do. I decided I wanted to see the other lakes — the ones off to the right, the ones nobody mentions.

It seemed only fair to start at the rifugio, since the rifugio itself is not quite what it looks like. Today, it’s a place where you buy a coffee and a slice of cake before a hike. A century and a half ago, it was a royal hunting lodge — one of the wooden houses Vittorio Emanuele II had built across this plateau in the 1860s, after declaring the entire Gran Paradiso massif his private hunting reserve. The king wanted the ibex for himself, and he wanted it badly enough to ban anyone else from touching it. It is one of those details history hands you for free: the same selfish decree that let one man shoot as many ibex as he liked is the reason the species survived at all, while it vanished from the rest of the Alps. 

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Thermal Cures Through Time: Italy's Warm Histories, Northern Focus

 A Slow Life Chronicles exclusive: Where geological time meets human time, and where Italy's deepest secrets bubble up from the earth's ancient heart.

A Weekend in Acqui Terme: Time Slows Where Warm Waters Flow

In the Piedmont hills, where Romans once soaked their weary bones, a small town keeps ancient secrets bubbling just beneath the surface.

The Great Cornetto Divide: A Morning Ritual That Maps Italy's Soul

 There's a moment every morning in Italy when the country reveals one of its most charming contradictions.

Following Water: Along Italy's Most Romantic Canal

There's something magical about discovering this gem of Italian engineering that has been quietly doing its job for over a century.

When the Italian Night Comes Alive (and Tries to Eat You)

 Okay, fellow night owls and adventurers, let's talk about Italian nightlife.

Lost in Time: A Medieval City That Looks Like a Fairytale

There's something truly special about that city — the way it holds its history so close, making visitors feel like they're walking through living stories rather than just looking at old buildings.

Adventures in the Alps: Discovery, Height Limits, and Hidden Charm

Life’s most incredible adventures often come by chance, and my recent trip through the breathtaking Alps was no exception.

Colle del Nivolet

Is Italy Still Worth Visiting — Or Are We Just Obsessed With Its Past?

Is Italy overrated or just not listening? We keep visiting the same old places, but maybe the real Italy is hiding somewhere else. There’s more to Italy than clichés and crowded sights.

The Ancient Secrets of Two Aosta Valley's Castles

Forget the crowded canals of Venice or the endless queues of Florence. There’s a quieter, more ancient Italy waiting to be discovered, nestled deep in the northwestern Alps: the Aosta Valley

The Silent Witness of Monza: A Son's Grief Amidst Royal Tragedy

 Visiting Monza offers a chance to step beyond the well-trodden tourist paths and encounter a site that invites reflection on the complex interplay of personal loss and political upheaval.

For travelers venturing beyond the iconic Colosseum and the romantic canals of Venice, Italy holds quieter, yet equally poignant, historical sites. One such place is the Royal Villa of Monza, nestled in the verdant landscape near Milan.

Where Africa and Europe Had Once Clashed

 Sunday, almost the first sunny day this year, I went with a friend to Lake Viverone and I remembered the story of this marvelous zone that not everybody knows. 

Lake Viverone

A Silence of Stone: Giovanni Fieschi at the Castle of Saint-Germain

 Those were hard times, and neither side was made of “saints”. Iblet de Challant had a reputation as a hard and pragmatic man, not “courteous” to enemies. Giovanni Fieschi was not an innocent victim.

The Hippopotamus on the Mountain: An impossible journey of the Italian soldiers of the WWI

High in the Adamello range, where the wind howls and the snow never truly melts, stands an ancient sentinel of war—a cannon known as “L'Ippopotamo.” For nearly a century, climbers ascending Cresta Croce at 3,300 meters have stumbled upon this rusting relic, a silent witness to a feat of sheer determination and madness.

The Chilling True Story of a Royal Scandal and a Love Erased

Amalfi’s Darkest Legend: The Duchess, Her Lover, and Her Brother. Could This Love Story Be More Tragic Than Romeo and Juliet?

Today, we return once again to the Amalfi Coast, and I will tell you about the terrible fate of a real, beautiful princess. I don’t know; maybe she wasn’t that beautiful, honestly. History has left us no portrait of her, but it doesn’t matter. It’s just the genre that obliges. Her name was Joanna.

Joanna was the niece of King Ferrante I of Naples. She was born and raised in the splendor and scandalous freedoms of the Neapolitan court. In 1497, she had to marry Don Alfonso Todeschini Piccolomini, the second Duke of Amalfi.

A Woman Photographer At Night In Venice (2)

The night in Piazza San Marco in Venice begins. Did it make sense to have this experience?

Budding Speleologist

I've always loved to go cave-crawling. It's interesting in its own way. But this time I was with real speleologists!

In the Caucasus (and in other places in Russia) there are many caves, even of incredible sizes, used for different purposes. Many caves are made to take tourists there. There are trains and multicolored lights that illuminate stalagmites and stalactites of all shapes and sizes.

There are paths, so tourists can walk comfortably without getting dirty feet and shoes from various couturiers. Crowds of guides and attendants watch out for any mishaps that may happen.

But since the inner parts of the earth are definitely not created for those=>>> Continue reading

 To see all the photos of this walk, 

 ⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎ Continue Reading This Story Here: ⬇︎⬇︎⬇︎ 

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A Woman At Night In Venice

I had read many opinions from photographers who wanted to photograph Venice at night. One day I decided to try it myself. It could be a fantastic experience! And I purchased my train ticket.

I want to tell you a story that happened to me a few years ago.

I went to Venice.

No, it wasn't the first time. I went there for several years because I felt rested after this trip. I discovered that to get there you could use the night train, leaving around 8 pm and arriving early in the morning. Spend a day in Venice, then take the return train in the evening and arrive in Salerno or Naples at 9 or 10 the next morning.