My father and my wife's father were both in Italy during World War II. As we prepared to travel to Italy last summer we wanted to spend a bit of time retracing their route and perhaps seeing some of the same things that they encountered. We hired the services of Dr. Danila Bracaglia who is the sole proprietor of Monte Casino / Anzio Battlefield tours. It was the highlight of our trip! We had given her information in advance concerning what units our dads were with. My father had been an aerial observer during the war. He flew in the back of a very small plane, observed enemy locations, dodged bullets, and radioed the info to the command post. Dr. Bracaglia was able to walk us to the location that had been the airstrip that my dad used during the war. Today it is a beautiful wheat field. It was incredible to stand their and imagine the planes flying in and out. We also toured the village of San Pietro which was never rebuild after the war. In my wife's dad's diary he noted being at San Pietro on January 1, 1944. For those of us who grew up with fathers who had fought in World War II, it was so rewarding to see first hand the difficulties that they faced and to literally be able to retrace their steps. At the end of the day we toured the beautiful Monte Casino Abbey which was destroyed during the war but has now been rebuilt.
Our time spent with Dr. Bracaglia was incredible! If you had a father, grandfather, uncle or other loved one who was in Italy during the war, you simply must make this tour. I am attaching a couple of links to her web site below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eyrM35nJwg#t=32
http://montecassinotours.com/index.php
It was the best thing that we did in our 11 days in Italy!