Mario Rigoni Stern RIP
Jun. 18th, 2008 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fpbNone of you will know who this man was; but he was one of Italy's greatest writers. He was the man who gave the mountain people of Northern Italy their voice in fiction, just before mass tourism changed it for ever; and his books on the Alpini and the war in Russia will not easily be forgotten. Riposa in pace, e grazie.
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The Alpini
Date: 2008-06-20 04:24 am (UTC)Since I don't speak Italian, would you be kind enough to post the title of his book?
It would make a great gift.
thank you,
Dean
Re: The Alpini
Date: 2008-06-20 05:08 am (UTC)PS: Your friend was an Alpino. Alpini is the plural.
PPS: and you and he might like this: http://fpb.livejournal.com/180480.html.
Re: The Alpini
Date: 2008-06-21 12:58 am (UTC)Out of curiosity, what type of unit were you in?
Dean
Re: The Alpini
Date: 2008-06-21 01:32 am (UTC)As I remarked elsewhere, it is interesting to see how traditions vary from army to army. In the matter of esprit de corps, for instance, of pride of belonging and corporate identity, the three Armies I know best are all different. In the US Army it seems to go by divisions (yes, I was in the Tenth, in the Eighty-First, etc.); in the British, it is by regiments; but in the Italian, it is by specialties. "Yes, I was in the Bersaglieri/ Alpini/ Carabinieri/ Lagunari (marines)/ Infantry/ Engineers/ Cavalry etc." This is probably because the Italian Army grew out of the old Sardinian (Savoy) Army, in which specialties were really quite small in themselves and rarely larger than division strength. These specialties are also quite ancient - the Carabinieri (military police and special forces) go back to 1720, and every recruit knows that. The Bersaglieri were set up in 1833, and the Alpini, with an establishment date of 1873, are the very babies of the army - though these babies kick!