Just back from a tour of ROME and its treasures, mostly classical and Renaissance. With a lot of eating thrown in. We included bespoke tours of privately owned palazzi, like the Palazzo Colonna – the scene of Princess Ann’s embassy (Audrey Hepburn in the 1953 Roman Holiday). We visited many of the places made famous in films, including of course the Trevi Fountain, where Anita Ekberg frolicked in La Dolce Vita (1960), and where those Latin smoothies Louis Jourdan and Rossano Brazzi cavorted with my aunt Dorothy McGuire in the final scene of Three Coins in the Fountain (1954). For tips on beating queues in Rome, as well as my suggestions for essential sights, access my magazine article here…

From Rome one can take a shortish train journey to MONTE CASSINO. This battlefield can be combined with a tour of San Pietro. The BATTLE FOR SAN PIETRO was made famous by John Huston’s documentary, filmed during and after the battle (some scenes are re-enacted). You can see the 34-minute long film here…

CASSINO can be visited over two-days, to include the bungled crossing of the Rapido, the Polish Cemetery (impressive) and of course the BENEDICTINE MONASTERY, and winding approaches, which dominate the LIRI VALLEY. Its destruction (despite an Allied pledge to respect such monuments) by Allied bombing in February 1944 was a disaster: a cultural catastrophe certainly, but a military blunder – as was predicted by a US general, Geoffrey Keyes. It merely allowed the Germans to occupy the monastery (which had been undefended) and fight in the rubble, excellent defensive material. Its destruction was as much psychological as tactical, as the British general at the sharp end who originally requested it, Gen. F.S. Tuker, considered it exerted a baleful influence on his troops.

The drive up the Italian peninsula was partly to liberate Italy, and partly to tie down German divisions which might otherwise have been deployed in NE Europe or the Eastern front.
Southern Italy is not a friendly place to fight a war. Jagged mountains athwart the line of advance; raging rivers that had to be crossed; mountain peaks occupied by Germans with 88s; and, of course, during the winter of 1943/1944, snow, then mud…

We could not leave the strategic battlefield without considering US General Mark Clark’s insubordination, his dash to capture Rome – for personal glory – while ignoring his chief Alexander’s order to cut off a retreating German army before it fought another day. Alexander was British, Clark American. Politics perhaps intervened to stop Clark being (deservedly) sacked.