The Abbey of Montecassino was founded by St Benedict around 529 AD on what remained of a Roman fortification.

The Abbey has been destroyed and rebuilt several times; The Longobards of Zotone destroyed the Abbey in 577 AD, Saracens invaded and destroyed the monastery by fire in 883, it was destroyed in 1349 by an earthquake and the most recent destruction was during the later stages of WWII when once again it was raised to the ground.

The destruction of the Abbey during the allied bombing in WWII left a few interesting artifacts still standing.

The statue of St Benedict that stands at the foot of the access staircase to the Abbey Church survived. The statue was sculpted in 1736 and bears the inscription “Benetictus qui venit in nomine Domini” (Blessed be he who came in the Name of the Lord). The sister statue of St Scolastica standing on the same steps was destroyed and what we see today is a copy of the original.

The high altar in the Abbey Church also survived intact after an anti-aircraft artillery shell lodged itself between two steps that lead up to the high altar without exploding and leaving the altar intact.

At the back of the high altar an inscription on black marble reads “St Benedict and St. Scolastica were never separated in the spirit during their life nor are their bodies separated in their death”. A bronze urn containing their earthly remains is located in this location, chosen by St Benedict for his sister Scolastica and for himself.

In the run up to the 80th anniversary of VE day I took part in a virtual challenge, walking 80km along the Normandy Beaches.

I decided to have my medal presented to me by the Cassino War Memorial in the Commonwealth War Cemetery during our recent visit to Cassino just a few days before VE day.

The medal is a double sided gold chrome star, the front  side, along with the ribbon, is a faithful recreation of the ‘1939-1945 Star’ that was awarded to all operational service during the Second world War. The reverse carries the 80th anniversary VE day logo.

The main reason for travelling to Cassino was to visit the Commonwealth War Cemetery where Mr C’s grandfather is listed on one of the large tablets that commemorates soldiers with no known grave. Mr C’s grandfather took part in the invasion of Sicily in 1943 but the glider he was in was one of many that fell short of land and ditched into the Mediterranean and he was drowned.

We stayed in the Hotel La Pace (which translates as the Peace Hotel) where the hotelier, Pino, hosts talks on the battles of Monte Cassino and the Italian campaign of 1943-1944. Pino wishes to educate young people about what happened in Cassino so that those events are not forgotten by the younger generation.

Pino has undertaken extensive research into the battles of Monte Cassino and has produced videos that tell the story using a mixture of maps and diagrams, archive footage and footage from war films.

For our talk, in English, we were joined by Mauro, an English-speaking Italian. Each of the three men had a connection to the Italian campaign. Mr C told his grandfather’s story. Mauro told the story of his father who was disarmed by the Bersaglieri (Italian military police) and interned by them at the time of Italy’s surrender. Pino told the story of his grandfather who, aged 8, was sheltering inside the abbey of Monte Cassino when it was bombed during the battle.

The bombing of Monte Cassino abbey remains controversial to this day. The campaign was led by an American general, Mark Clark, in his first command of as overall commander of a battlefront. Clark was a cautious commander and had already missed opportunities to shorten the war in Italy. The Allied generals were convinced that the abbey was a German strongpoint and didn’t know that monks and villagers were sheltering there. Debate raged until Clark agreed to the razing of the abbey. Permission was sought and obtained from Pope Pius XII and the bombing was planned for 16 February 1944. The idea was that the bombing would force the German defenders to take cover allowing the Allied infantry to gain ground unopposed and in doing so, break through the German’s Gustav Line and open the road to Rome.

The United States Air Force (USAF) was tasked with bombing the abbey and chose to try out a new technique for bombing targets. In order to evaluate this new technique, several camera crews were brought in to film the bombing and its effectiveness. Because of weather reports, the USAF moved the bombing forward a day but failed to notify the ground troops, negating the reason for bombing the abbey in the first place. After the dust had settled, the Germans occupied the ruins, taking advantage of the extra cover they provided. The Germans had not previously stationed troops inside the abbey.

Pino showed some of the archive footage taken that day. It was shocking to watch, especially knowing that it was a useless act. Both he and Mauro were very critical of Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal Badoglio, who took over leadership of the Italian Government after Mussolini was deposed. The conversation between Pino, Mauro and Mr C was interesting because each of them had very different knowledge about, and perspectives on, the events that took place. One slightly odd thing that came out is that in 1946, the Italians made a movie about the bombing of the abbey which featured extras drawn from the townsfolk, a number of whom had been inside the abbey at the time it was bombed.

The battle of Monte Cassino was multi-national and the town has three war cemeteries, one for the Germans, one for the Poles, who were heavily engaged in the battle and lost many casualties, and one for the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth cemetery contains the remains of more than 5,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

• Acknowledgement is given to the Armchair General for his contributions to this post

We got up bright and early, paid our bill and checked out of the hotel. We decided not to stop for breakfast to give us plenty of time to arrive at the airport before our scheduled flight.

The journey was not with us and we were beset with delays, arriving at the car hire outlet much later than we had intended. We fuelled up in the petrol station next door before checking the car back in with the gentleman that we dealt with on arrival.

Despite cutting it tight, we arrived at Rome airport in time for breakfast. Mr C still missed out on his cooked English breakfast because in Italy breakfasts are continental style. I chose a pistachio croissant which was something new to experience.

The flight boarded early and the pilot anticipated a timeslot ahead of schedule but this didn’t happen and our flight left on schedule. On arrival at Manchester airport, we passed through immigration and made our way to the baggage reclamation area.

Mr C always likes to position himself on the far side of the baggage conveyor so that he has plenty of time to recognise our luggage; he prints distinctive luggage labels that are easy to recognise. My fear always is that someone will grab my case as it travels slowly around to where we are positioned.

This was the day that that happened…

I had identified my case and it had the distinctive luggage label but before it made its way to me a lady grabbed it off the carousel. I ran across to her shouting excuse me and as I got nearer, I said ‘this is my case’. She looked down at the case and realised that although it was the same type of case as hers, it didn’t have the yellow ribbon that she used to identify her case. Thank goodness for Mr C’s luggage labels.

Luggage successfully retrieved we drove home via Wilmslow Garden centre for a late lunch where I settled for apple tart rather than something more substantial.

We picked up a ready meal on the way home (chicken Kiev) which we enjoyed after unpacking and watching the latest episode of Dr Who (no spoilers).

Before unpacking I put up my VE day 80 window display ready for the day of commemoration the day after.

Today the alarm buzzed as scheduled so we were in the breakfast room with plenty of time to spare. We arrived to find that there was only one piece of toasting bread, no other bread and insufficient slices of cheese, salami and ham.

I enquired about the bread and was told it had finished… Not quite what we were hoping for as a breakfast experience.

After our ‘not quite’ breakfast we drove to the nearby British military cemetery and war memorial. This was the main reason for our visit to Cassino; Mr C’s grandfather is listed on one of the tablets that commemorates soldiers missing in action during WWII. Mr C’s grandfather lost his life during the invasion of Sicily in 1943. The glider that he was in fell short of land off the coast of Syracuse and, sadly, he was drowned.

Whilst visiting the memorial site Mr C took the opportunity to locate the Shropshire Yeomanry graves. Whilst Mr C was doing this, I was asked to take a photograph by someone wearing a ‘Help for Heroes tee-shirt. Later we found that he was part way through a charity cycle race from Tunisia to South Yorkshire.

We returned to town for a late lunch. By this time, we were beginning to realize that many cafés do not open until 2pm and most restaurants don’t open until 8pm. We had lunch in Café Reale where I chose a delicious mozzarella and tuna roll.

We returned to the hotel, where Mr C read his book for a while, before then heading back into town for refreshments. We had intended to walk to the nearby Lord Baden Powell Garden but instead we headed back to the hotel where we had an appointment with the proprietor Pino for a to talk about the battle of Cassino. Pino has extensively researched the battle and had his own personal story to tell as did Mauro who joined the talk. Then of course Mr C had come with his own personal story to tell. This led to conversations about the battle from three different perspectives. I will elaborate on the talks and conversations in a separate post.

Afterwards it was time to walk back into town for our evening meal. We dined in Pan ‘Unto steakhouse where the food was delicious but we found the portions to be enormous and over facing.

We finished the evening at the Botanical cocktail bar where the proprietor remembered us from the previous evening even down to the detail of which drinks we had ordered. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect service.

I awoke wondering what time it was. Light was seeping through the curtains but everywhere was quiet. I squinted at my watch without wearing my glasses and was confused it looked like 8.30 but that couldn’t be possible the alarm had been set for 7.15 and I hadn’t heard it go off.

I put my watch down intending to check it again in a few minutes when I was less fuzzy headed. Meanwhile Mr C had roused, checked his watch and realised it was 8.30. This led to a mad dash around to get ready in time to get to breakfast – before it finished.

Mr C was convinced he had set the alarm and neither of us could understand why we had slept through it. Later in the day he realised that when setting the alarm for the duration of our stay he had missed our first morning off.

Breakfast was continental style and, although a little more limited, reminded me of the breakfasts that were on offer during our visit to Rome in August 2024.

After breakfast we walked into town intending to catch a bus to Montecassino Abbey. On the way to the square where we thought the nearest bus stop was located, we stopped off for a refreshing drink.

We didn’t see a single bus so we decided to head towards the railway station where the main bus station is also located. After seeing no buses as we walked, we abandoned the idea, deciding to use the hire car instead.

The drive up the mountain road to the Abbey was a little scary with sheer drops and hairpin bends. The journey was worth the effort; the Abbey is wonderful and peaceful and has an interesting museum that, amongst other exhibits, displays fragments of the original Abbey which during WWII was almost completely destroyed by targeted allied bombing. There is a story about that bombing to be told which I will share in a separate post.

Back in town, we parked the car at the hotel and headed into town with a view to an afternoon cake. Unfortunately, the cake shop was about to close but next door was a shop selling Gelato. A temptation too hard to resist.

Later we dined in Lustri Lab, a fish restaurant which wasn’t due to open until 8 o’clock. We had arrived shortly before 8 but the chef was happy for us to enter the restaurant early. The food and service were amazing, there was even a footstool to place my handbag on.

We received an Amuse Bouche and bruschetta before Mr C’s starter arrived. The starter was bluefish carpaccio, served raw and it was very good. For my main course I had chosen a cod dish but, when it arrived it, turned out to be a pasta dish with cod. Mr C had not been listening properly and had focused on what I was saying about the pasta dish. Whilst we were dining the heavens opened and there was a heavy downfall of rain.

Our first port of call for a nightcap turned out to be unfriendly, customers were not welcomed and made to feel that they shouldn’t be there. We didn’t linger long, moving round the corner to the street where, on the previous evening we were watching the ladies promenading up and down the street.

We settled ourselves in the Botanical cocktail bar where the atmosphere was comfortable and the service attentive. The proprietor kept adjusting the tables as people left to make the space more welcoming. We lingered a while before returning to our hotel for the night.

Back from my travels…