Memories and stories are the lifeblood of history. The things we experience, the things we see, and the things we do all contribute to the grand scheme of things, or so I think. But still, they are important. To be able to remember or to recount the things that have happened in our lives, no matter how insignificant they may seem, touches something so inexplicably human. Memories create the links to our past and forge the way for a better future.
It's no surprise then that in Italy, the small Tuscan town of Pieve Santo Stefano values their people's diaries so much. Situated just outside Caprese Michelangelo in the province of Arezzo, Pieve Santo Stefano is dubbed Italy's "Citta' del Diario" or "City of Diaries" because of their vast collection of diaries.
More than 8,000 diaries reside here—nearly three per capita—in the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale (ADN), or National Diary Archive. Many deal with war. Others with love, madness, adventure. Together, these journals—written by Italians from every province and profession—comprise one of the richest testaments to the Italian experience available anywhere in the world. And some 200 more arrive each year.
Yet the town’s peculiar claim to fame is rooted in tragedy. Seventy-five years ago—on August 5, 1944, roughly a year after the Mussolini regime had collapsed and the Nazis had occupied Italy—the townspeople of Pieve Santo Stefano were ripped from their beds under threat of death and marched north with whatever meager possessions they could carry. The town was promptly leveled.
One can imagine the kind of pain that it must have caused the people of this humble town. And it is possibly the reason why the people of the town have devoted themselves to remembering such events, whether big or small by writing them on diaries as well as gathering as many diaries as they could from all over the country. The other reason: Saverio Tutino.
(Image credit: Julia Joppien/Unsplash)