The courage of Italians during WWII

As noted below, I am the author of "The Cielo: A Novel of Wartime Tuscany," and since its publication I've been surprised by the number of people who say they didn't know anything about the suffering of Italians during WWII.

The setting of my story is Tuscany, but it could have been set anywhere in Italy. Italian civilians were forced to endure bombings, murders, massacres, rapes, and horrific atrocities. Not to mention shortages of food, water, electricity. Many were under siege for months as the Germans and Allies and then the Germans and partisans fought all around them.
And yet there was a tremendous amount of courage and endurance.
Somehow they survived.

Anyone who travels to Italy now knows that the war is still present for the older generation. Let's hope the younger generation -- and all of us who are of Itaian descent -- remember it, too.
(I note there is a poem by Aldo Tambellini a little farther below on this site. I have been talking to Aldo since the pubication of the book. The book resonates with him because he was a child in a village not far from my "Sant'Antonio" and witnessed bombings and killings and oher terrible things. He has written a marvelous poem about it.)

Paul Salsini