Aloha. Has anyone visited any of the WWII sites in Italy. My grandfather was part of the invasions into Sicily and Anzio.

I will be visiting in Sept '08 and was wondering if any of the WWII sites in Sicily or Anzio are like Normandy, France where you can still see bomb craters and and battlefield emplacements.

Also, has anyone ever flown from southern Italy over to Santorini, Greece? If so, what airport in southern Italy did you fly out of?

Thanks for info you can give me.

topping

Anzio has a WWII museum and the next town, Nettuno, has the American cemetary. Very beautiful and moving. If you have a car, Montecassino is not too far.

Visited Montecassino in May. An abbey which is in the most peaceful surroundings. The Polish cemetery is there where many lives were lost. This was held by the Nazi in World War II so there is quite a bit of history connected to this site.

Monte Cassino is indeed a great site to see and hear WWll stories. I've visited it about five times, and still cannot get my fill. The only problem is the old man, head clergyman, (I don't know what his title is), he was present during the battle and bombing. He is DEFINETELY a Nazi symphatizer. Hearing him speak, as I have a couple of times, you would think that the poor Germans, and not the Americans should have won the war. This SOB really hates Americans. I got into a heated discussion with him because he said the US destroyed the place. I FORCEFULLY told him that the US rebuilt the place better than what is was. Anything I told this crum went like water off a duck's back. He is truly anti American. HOWEVER, he tells a great story.

Without rewriting history, the American Air Corps did destroy the abbey. None of it was really necessary, if the original invasion was operated with any kind of sense at all. Field Marshal Kesselring knew his forces did not stand a chance, but instead of invading and advancing, the Allies proceeded to just dig in on Anzio/Nettuno beach. This allowed Kesselring to bring in thousands of reserve forces and turn Anzio into a blood bath. An end-around was put into play, going to Monte Cassino, another stupid idea.

Kesselring could not understand why the Allies did not simply invade north of Rome and cut the German army off.

Oh, my father in law was on the Anzio beachhead and my dad was with the Air Corps. After Anzio, dad was transferred to Tinian.

I don't disagree with the fact that the Abbey in Cassino didn't have to be destroyed. What I was getting at was the vituperative way that the clergy guy mentioned that and his apparent hatred of Americans. The complete Cassino operation was a fiasco, as was the whole Italian campaign. It was carried out only to appease Churchill. The destruction in Italy was entirely unecessary. It's a sin that it happened, and that is what I told that old fart in the Abbey. But war is a horror that was brought upon the US. Italy declared war on America. The US would never gone to war against Italy. I just finished reading "Mussolini's Italy". It's a pretty good book (difficult reading), but it illustrates the mentality of that beast Mussolini, and the way that many Italians idolized him. I have a funny story about that-- When I was growing up in Brooklyn, on Avenue U, on the second story of the local Post Office, was located the 9 Maggio Club. May ninth is the date that the "brave" Italian forces entered Addis Abbaba, the capitol of Ethiopia, in 1936. The club retained that name until December 1941, when Italy declared war on the US. It then was named "The Mother Cabrini Educational Institute". Same guys running the club, with no difference in policies.

Thanks for tips.

I note that others are having trouble with this site, maybe that explains why I've searched several times for Anzio and found only one post. I guess this is my lucky night. Anyway, my dad was at Anzio during the invasion, and though he died 34 years ago I am planning a trip there next March to just try to envision him there as a young man and pay respect to those who died there. I will be in Rome for a few days and plan to go to Anzio, but have no idea how much time to allow to visit the sites. He was also at Montecassino, would like to see that. I won't have a car, but are there guides that might take us around? (He was in the US Army)