Romano Sauro, Francesco Sauro
Ed. The Muse Talia
pp. 346
"Vardila that tricolor flag that mine is mine but yours and your fradei. For I am ready to die when he arrives at the moment."
It is the 25 April of the 1912 when, on the occasion of a visit to Venice on the day of the inauguration of the rebuilt bell tower of San Marco, according to Nino's memories, Nazario pronounces those words in front of the Italian flag.
Perhaps he already imagines what his destiny will be, perhaps it is only the promise not to hold back in front of anything for what he considers his homeland.
Certainly there is that in a few years Nazario Sauro will give all his most precious possessions for Italy: his life.
Romano and Francesco Sauro are the authors of the book and at the same time are the nephew and great-granddaughter of Nazario.
The book is a collection of memories that allows us to reconstruct the character, as well as the adventures, of the Nazario Sauro man by means of words and memories of the whole family and of the people who knew him as a man of sea, irredentist, Italian patriot, supporter of the Albanians, a companion of jokes against the Austrians and a family man, son, husband and father.
Because Nazario Sauro is all this together, despite a short life. He will die in Pola on 10 August 1916 by the Austrians, hanged for high treason.
Traitor to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hero to Italy, Nazario Sauro ran after freedom.
A hundred years after his death, the second edition of the book comes out, recalling a piece of history, perhaps not at all known, that of the struggle for belonging to Italy of the territories of Istria, Trieste and Koper.
In 1920 Trieste became Italian again while Koper, the city where Nazario was born, now belongs to Slovenia.
Nazario Sauro was first of all a sailor and spent his life on the sea.
He knew in depth every port, every shoal, every rock on the coast where he worked and this allowed him to give information to Italy in war but also to carry out bold operations relying on his superior knowledge of the place. Nazario took unreservedly the parts of Italy and, also thanks to his work, took advantage of his movements to send news to the Italian Navy Ministry about the movements of Austrian military ships.
In the 1914 Nazario, and in the 1915 (almost) his whole family, he left Koper to move to Venice, just before Italy entered the war.
On May 21, 1915 Nazario wears the uniform and on the 23rd he officially enters the Italian Royal Navy with the rank of lieutenant; the day after Italy enters the war against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the same day Nazario embarks on the destroyer "Bersagliere" for his first mission: a fire action against Monfalcone.
In little more than a year of war, from April 1915 to August 1916, Nazario took part in many missions knowing full well that, if caught, he would be sentenced to hang for high treason. In fact, as early as March 1915 he was accused of high treason and in February 1916 he had been sentenced in absentia. But this did not prevent him from participating in warfare or exploration and observation missions against the main enemy bases of Trieste, Monfalcone, Pirano, Fiume and Parenzo.
His last mission was aboard the submarine "Giacinto Pullino", on a war mission against Fiume, where he was to torpedo the boats in the port. Nazario embarked on the 30 in July, confident that he could once again make his contribution.
It was midnight and twenty-five when the submarine ran aground on the rock of the Galiola islet. Nazario, perhaps to escape capture, left in the morning on a small rowing boat but was intercepted by the destroyer "Satellit" and taken prisoner ...
Nazario Sauro, story of a sailor, history of patriotism and adventures, a story that cannot be missed in the library of the Italians.
Alessandro Rugolo
