Last updated: October 2026
I wrote this in July 2014, after one of those mornings you don’t forget. I’ve tidied it up a little, but it’s still the same walk.
I woke up far too early. 5.30am. I looked out of the window and the night’s rain had left the whole village smothered in a blanket of eerie mist.
Most sensible people would have gone back to bed. I grabbed my camera.
There was a howling opportunity waiting up at the village cemetery, and I wasn’t going to miss it.
Three names
Up among the graves, in the grey light, I came across a stone for three local men. Danilo, Luigi and Divo. All three were killed here in Castelvecchio by Allied artillery on 24 September 1944, during the fighting that came with the liberation.
I stood there a long time.
The old pieve
Right beside the cemetery is the Pieve dei Santi Ansano e Tommaso, Castelvecchio’s old parish church. It’s a proper Romanesque beauty, with records going back to the ninth century, three apses, and a crypt under the altar.
In the mist it looked like it had been standing there waiting for me. Which, to be fair, it has. For about a thousand years.
Walking back down
I carried on past the pieve and down into the village, and kept looking back over my shoulder. My head was full of those three names.
What was it truly like to live here then? Partisans and Fascists. Allies and Germans. Gunshots and shelling in valleys this quiet. The war passed right through the Pescia valley in 1944, and families up here were caught in the middle of it.
I crept back into the house. The children were still fast asleep. I sneaked a little kiss on each of their cheeks and felt so grateful and fortunate that our streets and villages are safe now.
Castelvecchio today
Castelvecchio today is tranquil, colourful and charming. Italians live here alongside a friendly mix of Germans, English, Scots, Irish, Americans and more, and everyone says buongiorno. It’s a lovely place to be.
I went back to bed that morning, but I didn’t sleep. I lay awake wondering where I could find out more about that time, and about Danilo, Luigi and Divo.
Visiting Castelvecchio
Where: one of the Dieci Castella in the Svizzera Pesciatina, about 12 km above Pescia.
The pieve: the Pieve dei Santi Ansano e Tommaso is just outside the village, by the cemetery. Opening is irregular, but the outside alone is worth the walk.
Please remember: the cemetery is still in use. Be quiet and respectful, and don’t photograph other people’s family graves up close.
More from Castelvecchio:
- Festa of the Ham Sandwich: Castelvecchio’s Sagra del Panino con il Prosciutto
- A living nativity in Tuscany: Christmas Eve in Castelvecchio
- Racing cars pass through Castelvecchio
Susan
