Friday, 18 May 2012 - Monte Cassino

The reason for our visit here was to remember the battle(s) that took place here in early 1944.  Mike's father had been part of the New Zealand contingent who were heavily involved.  We first visited the Abbey of Monte Cassino.  It's at the top of a very large hill.  The road leading up to it was very steep and windy - and dotted with tour buses that need all of the road on some of the corners.  We made it to the car park.  The Abbey is stunning and it's hard to believe that it was virtually destroyed during the action that took place.  You can find out more about the battles on the web, including this article from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino
I 'borrowed' this picture to give some idea of the destruction, followed by a picture from inside as we saw it.

Monte Cassino in ruins

Now so beautiful

After visiting the Abbey - so beautiful and serene - we went looking for the Commonwealth War Graves.  We found an ordinary cemetery (whoops), luckily one of the visitors there pointed us in the right direction and we eventually found it.  The cemetery was immaculate and beautifully tended.  It was very moving.  We eventually found the New Zealand area - a lot of graves.

Gravestones with the Abbey on the hill.

Tricia's diary says:

Cold weather, very cold morning, lovely warm day.  Went to the Abbey of Monte Cassino.  We went to the Sacrario Militare.  Commonwealth - NZ, Englad, Canada, India

Quite a sombre day in some ways, but we were all very glad we came.  It's a shame Mike's father, and his fellow soldiers, never saw this area in the way we got to see it.