Passeggiando sul Tre Pini, niente lavoro oggi 🌿
- salli443
- 9 hours ago
- 7 min read
Walking at Tre Pini, no work today. Come walk with me, and I’ll show you something deeper. The hills above Florence look peaceful, with olive trees, endless stone walls, and long quiet paths that seem untouched by time. But here, the past sits close to the surface and the gunfire that breaks the silence comes from local hunters, and not the intrepid foot soldiers or roaring bomber planes of the past.
Handmade chipboard signs on trees and lampposts guide you to the Montebeni (Fiesole) "TRE PINI" - "three pines" route ~ a bit of a mystery tour, but worth it. Muddy paths, so wear boots.
~ Information on the Tre Pini Trail ~
The trail takes you through a lot of fields with olive trees, and woodland areas. Perfect for dog walkers.
The memorial plaque you end up at, stops you in your tracks. It features those killed here in August 1944, during the final months of the World War Two, and reads: "The slaughter... on 5–8–1944... of Nello Pini and Spinelli Giuseppe and Adeno, together with 19 other patriots... In everlasting remembrance of their sacrifice for our homeland, imploring from God eternal peace". The second plaque commemorates courageous Sergio Chiari and his eleven faithful late comrades.
No-one here has forgotten the human sacrifice of WW2. The TRE PINI trail has been created to revive its memory. Ample reminders dotted here and there, engraved in marble, slate and featuring cosy religious shrines keeping the memory of loved ones who fought for everything they ever knew, alive and in our hearts.
With so much uncertainty created by governments around the world, it feels more important than ever to remember the bravery of those who fought for our freedoms and for peace. Reminders are close to home with my latest detecting find being a small WW2 Italian Artillery pin artefact (1940).
Also, given the vast amount of anti-aircraft shrapnel detected in my garden, as well as the Fascist hat pin above, and hundreds of fired and live bullets (many are also musket balls) now in my collection, it is very possible that WW2 Italian Artillery were defending this region, targeting bomber planes and occupying troops here.
Lots of wild flowers flanking the paths through the olive groves and winding pastures.
As clear as day, it's this way!
Here is what it looks like when you finally reach your destination!
With the trail completed and a picnic enjoyed afterwards, we reflected on why this walk was created. It serves as a space that brings family and friends together, its significance etched in stone for all to pay their respects to the heroes of the past who drove change - the family members, neighbours, and friends lost during turbulent times. It is a quiet reminder of the necessary yet macabre irony of fighting for peace.
Quick tangent: Advancing another ten years after WW2, and here is another recent find of mine, a 1954 five Lira coin. I have about twelve coins now, most from the 1800s onwards - the Vittorio Emmanuele reign, who of course played a central role in uniting Italy as the last King of Sardinia and first King of Italy.
On a fluffier note ~ and when walking recently in the Commune of Impruneta, in the rural suburbs of the Metropolitan City of Florence, we didn't expect to find this tucked away!
The conflict stretches beyond local stories, and in Impruneta, further down the hill from this London cab, is a beautifully maintained American Cemetery, positioned off Via Cassia – one of Italy's main Roman roads. (I am told that there is also a British memorial site nearby, which is tiny by comparison. That is probably because commonwealth allies fighting in Italy in WW2, were enlisted from British colonies, and not directly from Britain, though some were).
No less than 4,400 American service members from the "Italian Campaign" between 1943 and 1945 are buried in orderly rows of white headstones. Some sadly in name only, as the site includes a memorial ofTablets of the Missing, listing more than 1,400 names of those whose remains were never recovered.
It features a chapel, sculptural elements, and maps commemorating the efforts of the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy, and serves as a solemn tribute to the brave victims during the liberation of Italy. If you haven't yet visited it, you really should.
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) welcomes the placement of flowers at the gravesites of those interred or memorialised in its overseas cemeteries. 💐
But this is Italy, after all, and regardless of the weather, it is a place where people are warm, sociable, and deeply skilled at enjoying the present while never quite losing sight of the past. At times, a traditional dance known as the Saltarello brings communities together.
It is a living custom that surfaces when small villages gather to celebrate, filling outdoor piazzas with music, movement, and a ton of fun. I think my neighbour was practising this yesterday, but she's being quite discrete about it. 😊 "Sonnet written in Holy Week at Genoa" by Oscar Wilde is a poem composed during Wilde’s stay in Genoa, Italy, in 1881. It features the narcissi (narcissus flowers) as a central image, described as “like silver moons” lying at the poet’s feet in the Scoglietto park.
This sonnet, written in the Italian (Petrarchan) form, captures a moment of inner tension between pagan beauty and Christian sorrow, with the narcissi symbolising both natural splendor and the fleeting, almost dangerous allure of classical beauty. BTW Holy Week in Italy 2026 begins on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026, and ends on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026. Easter in Tuscany is amazing, and super colourful in every way. But on to a rustic and time-worn facade, painted mostly by sun and rain...
We found this delightful archway structure en route, and really wanted to enter the castle grounds to explore, but it is closed to the public. One day I hope to be able to visit and understand its story.
Enjoying the crisp winter sun and the freedom of not being bitten, or stung, though the honey bees are all over the rosemary flowers right now.
There are no mosquitoes until early Spring, which for me as a Brit, now feels like a luxury. In fact, I was told to grow Eucalyptus trees at our new apartment grounds, as they hate the fresh menthol-like fragrance.
Of course, no blog is complete unless I point out an interesting stone or two. This one below appears to be a re-used window lintel, or a low garden divider wall feature, now demoted to a mere walling stone amongst hundreds. The gardener or waller would have recycled it, as is commonplace here.
Pretty wall en route to Settignano, past the most annoyingly aggressive dog in the whole village.
Ornate sign also found in Settignano, which reads: “Work of Divine Providence, Our Lady of Grappa, House of Hope”. Another nunnery in the area, I'm convinced.
Al and I ventured into town later on, as our daughter was staying at a friend's house overnight. So many cosy places to choose from, and this table had our names on it.
No, they aren't real, though I do like them 🌸 🌸 🌸 .
Not sure if this fountain has ever functioned in the last century, but it was originally built for the horses.
Getting dark, here is a photo from Piazzale Michelangelo.
Life here balances memory and joy, with some fabulous walks to explore in the outskirts of Florence and dazzling brilliance in the City.
If you have enjoyed this article, please do leave a comment below, and share your thoughts. Grazie mille.
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