The route of the column starts from the settlement of Cà di Landino, village of the miners who built the "Great Gallery of the Apennines" called Direttissima, then later the barracks of the Germans with deposits of ammunition and fuel and finally the barracks of the South African troops framed in the British army and then allied with the American ones. The British military railway genius reactivated the railway line immediately after the closure of the hostilities of the Second World War because the German troops had destroyed a railway carriage made of a giant harrow along the whole railway line of the old working line.
Today's hamlet of Cà di Landino is located in the municipality of Castiglione dei Pepoli (reachable from the Pian del Voglio motorway exit on the A1 called "Autostrada del Sole"). The entire route of the column winds around the Direttissima railway line at the point of maximum combat of the Gothic Line when the allied troops went up the Florentine Apennines and freed the city of Bologna in April of the 1945.
The itinerary touches the Germanic military cemetery of the Futa pass, the World War II museum of Bruscoli in the municipality of Firenzuola, the Montesole park with the trenches recreated in the context of the School of Peace and finally the Guidotti museum of Castiglione dei Pepoli inaugurated last year with an exhibition hall entirely dedicated to the South African troops present on this territory from the autumn of 1944 to the spring of 1945.
It is interesting to note that the famous journalist Enzo Biagi also stayed in the Palazzo dei Ferrovieri in Cà di Landino when he was involved in the partisan activity.
The initiative is non-profit-making and is open for free to participants with vehicles and military uniforms of the time, as well as all visitors and enthusiasts along the way.
(For information and accreditations info@abcappennino.it)
Click here to see a video of the previous edition
