Alpini

Established in 1872 at the dawn of unified Italy, the Alpine corps has always been an example of military and civil value and is a constitutive part of Italian identity and national sentiment. From the birth of the first "Alpine companies", up to the recent commitments for peace in Afghanistan and the Middle East, the Alpine troops have spanned a century and a half writing famous pages of history in Italy and around the world: the cold of Russia's retreat and the scorching heat of Adua, the battles on Adamello and the Tre Cime in the First World War and the partisan war of 1943-'45, when thousands of soldiers and officers transformed into fighters for the freedom of Italy. The Alpine troops fought with honor in Ethiopia and Libya, in the Alps, and then in Greece, Albania and the Apennines; during the Cold War they formed the forward deployment of NATO. This book, as is right, also touches on the dark moments of this history, from the attack on France in 1940 to the choice of some groups to join the Republic of Salò. However, the history of the Alpine troops is not just a history of war: from the fight against terrorism, to international peacekeeping missions, to support for civil protection, the Alpine troops took to the field after the Vajont flood, and after the earthquakes in Irpinia, in Friuli, in Abruzzo. Stefano Ardito retraces the events of one of the most beloved corps of the Italian Army, telling a piece of the history of the best Italy in this volume, winner of the Bancarella Selection Award in 2020.