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The past that informs the future

KEVIN DONNELLY reports from Monte Faudo and its annual remembrance of the region’s WWII partisan anti-fascist battles

The Torre Paponi memorial

IN BERNARDO Bertolucci’s epic drama Novecento (1900), the film is bookended by two major segments set on April 25 1945 — Liberation Day.

It reflects the importance this day holds in the Italian political and cultural imagination; and continues to do so thanks to the efforts of volunteers and organisations such as ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’ Italia / National Association of Italian Partisans).

This year is the 80th anniversary and I was invited to an event marked by theatre, song — and of course pranzo (lunch) — at Casone dei Partigiani del Monte Faudo, the Partisan House, which was used during the war as a base. Set on the slopes of a mountain, It is now a museum containing numerous photographs, artefacts and documents.

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