At the time many vehicles that ran on gas could be converted to operate with the alcohol found in wine and hundreds of barrels were confiscated for that purpose. Oil would have to be added, which was absorbed by the wooden staves in the barrels, making them unusable for anything but firewood.
Adalio spit on the ground again when telling us that the French troops who came afterwards were as bad as the Nazis. Reprisal toward those who were accused of being collaborators, began in early September 1943 when the first Allied forces landed in southern Italy and continued throughout 1946. Adalio felt that this was not only justified, it wasn’t harsh enough. He wanted them all killed.
Italy finally signed an armistice with the Allies, but the Germans helped Mussolini escape and he set up a puppet government called the Italian Social Republic. It served simply as an irritant during a period when the country was attempting to rebuild. He was finally captured along with his mistress while trying to flee Italy for Switzerland in the final days of the war. Both were shot and killed by the partisans, and their bodies hung upside down for public display in a Milan Piazza. Adalio said proudly he was amongst the cheering crowd that gathered to see the bodies. He felt it was too good an ending for them, and they should’ve been made to suffer.
With nowhere else to go, Adalio remained at the vineyard and married Gina, the Manneti’s daughter. Now the village had grown from a few dozen stone houses with a church and a Bell tower on the hill, to becoming a major tourist destination. He liked it better before all the hotels, restaurants cars and people appeared. Throughout all of this, we were mesmerized not only by the personal information he shared, pausing only for an occasional sip of wine, but his prodigious recall of the events. Remarkable for anyone, let alone a 94-year-old! Could it have been due to the well water he drank?
With dusk approaching, and now feeling the effects of several glasses of wine, there was no way we were going to cycle to our destination. The bikes remained in the van and with handshakes, hugs and a touch of sadness, we thanked both Adalio and Gina for turning a flat tire into one of the highlights of our trip.
