Todi has three sets of walls. Just traces of the paleo-Etruscan wall, but the Roman walls are mostly intact, and the medieval ones are even bigger and better. Which rather sums up a lot of the history of Italy. The walls may be decorative now (though they do help limit car access), but they were not always. Todi has seen a lot of armies go by.
One of those armies, just eighty years ago, included my own father, who came through in June 1944 in a Sherman tank as part of Sixth Armoured Division of the British army, driving hard for Northern Italy after the stalemate at Cassino was finally broken late in May.
But somewhere north of Todi his tank was destroyed and he spent two weeks in the Ospidale di Todi. (It now serves as government offices, and there's a new regional hospital a few miles away.)
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| Former Ospidale |
The other day the host at our accommodation, the wonderful Residenzia San Lorenza Tre, told us her mother aunt and grandmother served at the Ospidale, first helping the German wounded, then the British wounded. At that point I seemed to get something in my eye and couldn't speak for a few moments. Happy to say my father survived his wounds and came away with a lifelong affection for things Italiano.
Todi is a great place to visit even without this kind of connection. Views, history, architecture, food (!), hospitality second to none. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.
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| Bit of the medieval wall |
