TUTTI I DIRITTI RISERVATI © 2024
The protagonist, Luigi Mari
It was easy to draw inspiration for the character of Luigi Mari from my extensive memories of a particularly dear family member, my uncle Michelino Iannarone. Following the post-unification conflict in southern Italy, my paternal great-grandfather needed to replenish the family finances that had been decimated by the strife. Thus the dotal assets of two sisters were contracted by him for the marriage of his two sons, my grandfather and his brother. My Uncle Michelino was the latter's son, thus my father’s cousin two times over, by paternal and also maternal lines. A military officer by choice and vocation, like his brothers, he pursued his career during the years of the fascist regime. He also completed university studies in history, politics and philosophy, loving the Latin more than the Greek classics, as well as being an accomplished Dante scholar. After adventurous missions during WWII at the battlefront, he was sent to Berlin from August '42 to early '43 as a liaison officer for the Eastern Front. He returned to Rome to command Aegean Forces and after Sept. 8th collaborated with Colonel Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo in organizing the Clandestine Military Resistance Front. He assumed command of the partisan group known as the Castelli Sud Lazio and responsibility for intelligence operations in conjunction with the Allied Forces. When the Gestapo and the Fascists attempted to capture him, he escaped in a daring manner and was saved by Iolanda, a partisan dressmaker who would become his wife two years later. In 1946 he concluded his military career with the rank of division general.
A passion for the stories of History
