Participation of the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Maria Tripodi, at the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Bolsena and Upper Tuscia

This morning, the Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Maria Tripodi attended the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bolsena and upper Tuscia by the allied forces. The commemoration ceremony took place at the British War Cemetery, home to 600 fallen soldiers of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. In the presence of Mayor Andrea di Sorte, local civil authorities and the military attaché of the Canadian embassy, Undersecretary Tripodi paid tribute to the protagonists of a crucial moment in the campaign to liberate Italy from Nazi occupation.

After retreating from Rome in June 1944, the German troops made a first stop in Bolsena and, just east of the lake of the same name, the Allies clashed there in a bloody battle between armoured troops. The cemetery site was chosen in November 1944 and the bodies were transported there from the battlefields between Bolsena and nearby Orvieto. 'Continuing to cultivate the memory of one of the most tragic pages of our history, to hand it down to the new generations, is the best antidote to never repeating the horrors of the past.

We will always be sincerely grateful to our friends and allies, for the sacrifice they made, which together with the partisan resistance defeated the Nazi-Fascist barbarity and laid the first building block for the construction of a free and democratic Italy,' said the Undersecretary.