Swept Away to Ascoli Piceno: World War I Italian Trenches and Great War Artifacts

Today is our last day in the Alps and we spent the day learning about Italian's history in The Great War (WWI) and how San Martino and the surrounding towns were affected by it. San Martino and it's surrounding towns were all part of one of the front's for the Italian border in their fight against Austria. Up in the Italian Alps (the Dolomites) and the smaller towns around this area there are still trenches and ruins from the Great War. Today we traveled to the town of Caoria where this is a small World War I museum, trenches, and cemeteries from the Great War. We had our own tour guide from one of the artifact museums take us around the town to show us the different sites. He spoke in such a heavy accent and broken English that it was difficult to understand him but we had two UNH professors help translate which made it easier to learn.

The area that we are in used to be under Austrian control and during the war the control of the land was constantly changing between Italian and Austrian. Because the land used to be Austrian, it influences the architecture and the food of the cities so everything looks very Austrian and not very Italian.

Apparently I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures in the museum, but I didn't find out until I was leaving. So, here are some pictures you would never see unless you visited!!

Italian Bunker

Italian Great War Soldier Cemetery (and our Tour Guide)

Italian Copper Factory Ruins

Bunker Entrance

Italian Grenade

During the museum talk, the guide was saying how important the invention and use of the machine gun was and how it influenced the outcome of the war. Most soldiers were not used to the new weaponry and were not prepared for how much destruction it could cause. The guide was saying that one round of bullets could kill up to 700 soldiers at a time which definitely influenced how the war was fought.