Posts under Uncategorized

Il Cinghiale in Italia (The Wild Boar in Italy)

It’s wild boar hunting season here, and that means that twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, we have to be very careful where we go for our camminate (walks) as it’s not just the cinghiali (boars) that might get shot, those hunters use some pretty serious hardware to bring down their quarry. Luckily as [...]

Man Rides Pig Underwater! – Part 2

I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for part two of the story of the Maiali (Pigs) or SLC Human Torpedoes that were pioneered by Italy during La Seconda Guerra Mondiale (The Second World War).
In part one I explained that the Maiali were transported to the area of operation on board a specially adapted conventional submarine, [...]

E’ morto l’ultimo reduce della Grande Guerra

Born on the 23rd August 1898 Delfino Borroni, who died earlier this week, was the last surviving Italian reduce (veteran) of the Grande Guerra (Great War, i.e. WW1).
Borroni was called up in 1917 at the age of nineteen to serve in the Bersaglieri Ciclisti (infantry with bikes), and began his combat career on the front [...]

Man Rides Pig Underwater!!

For many people Italian history begins with the Roman Empire and ends with the Renaissance. But we Italians have always been a creative bunch and Leonardo da Vinci was by no means the last to come up with ingenious devices to be employed in both peace and war.
At the beginning of World War 2, the [...]