Reporter di guerra Kipling in Friuli hystorical tour

Reporter di guerra Kipling in Friuli: hystorical tour by bike Udine, Pradamano, Buttrio, Manzano, San Giovanni al Natisone, Cormons, Gradisca, San Martino del Carso, Monte San Michele

I. S. Bonaldo Stringher il Laboratorio di Storia The cycling tour has been made following the letters wrote by Kipling in 1917 to his wife Elsie and his daughter Caroline. This texts are included in every stage of the route. From the articles, which Kipling wrote between the 9 th and the 11 th May 1917, in Friuli was published a book. The cycling route follow the old street which linked Udine to San Martino del Carso, today it is put beside a fast-paced road. The tourist who rides through this old road will see the path descibed by Kipling in his own letters. This would be much safer because the traffic is obviously less. This work was design in several years by 5 th year classes from “Tecnico del turismo” section, where different students contributed in the production.

Rudyard KIPLING Nel 1907 a Rudyard Kipling viene conferito il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (Bombay, 30 dicembre 1865 – Londra, 18 gennaio 1936) è stato uno scrittore e poeta britannico. Fra le sue opere più note: la raccolta di racconti Il libro della giungla (1894), i romanzi Kim (1901), Capitani coraggiosi (1897), i componimenti in versi Gunga Din (1892). Passò la prima infanzia in India, poi visse in Inghilterra. All'inizio della Prima guerra mondiale cominciò a svolgere l'incarico di corrispondente di guerra, prima sul fronte occidentale, poi su quello italiano. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (Bombay, 30 December 1865 – London, 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, poet, and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901). He lived his childhood years in England, then he moved to London. At the beginning of the First World War Kipling was a war correspondent, first on the western front, then in Italy.

John Kipling, son of Rudyard, died in 1915. Rudyard with his wife Caroline and his doughter Elsie.

The Kipling’s tour in Friuli Arriving at Udine in the morning of 9 May, they were taken to see General Cadorna and the King at the General Headquarters. The visits to the Front began the following morning, when Colonel Pirelli, their escorting officer, took them to the Carso sector near Gradisca (and, incidentally, near the first British howitzer batteries, which had arrived at Palmanova a few days earlier). They then visited Gorizia and the Italian positions on Podgora, afterwards lunching with General Capello, and then calling at a Red Cross Radiographic Unit at Cormons before returning to Udine. This tour provided the material for the first two articles - The Roads of an Army and Podgora.

The visits to the Front began the 10 th May 1917 when Colonel Pirelli, escorting officer, took Kipling to the Carso sector near Gradisca (and, incidentally, near the first British howitzer batteries, which had arrived at Palmanova a few days earlier). They then visited Gorizia and the Italian positions on Podgora, afterwards lunching with General Capello at Cormons, and then calling at a Red Cross Radiographic Unit at San Giovanni al Natisone before returning to Udine. The next day (11 May 1917) was devoted to a tour of the Front in the Isonzo gorge, where the Xth Battle of the Isonzo was due to start the following day. They travelled north from Monte Sabotino, along the Kolovrat to a point overlooking Tolmino before heading back to Udine.

This tour has been built by the information which are in the letters which Rudyard Kipling has written to the wife and the daughter, in the five articles published up Daily Telegraph stand New York tea and the 6 June 1917, 9 June 1917, 13 June 1917, 16 June 1917, 20 June 1917. At last we have read the book "the war in the mountains" (s. d). The marked roads are whats Kipling has covered. The tour can be made on the car or the bike, in this case it is necessary to remember that the way is on secondary roads, but with car passage.

The Kipling’s journey in a 1917 map.

Udine - Monte San Michele km. 53, 7

UDINE Then after that at 8 p. m. We dined in a little restaurant with General Delme. Radcliffe, and Colonel Alexander – just Landon and me. It was on the edge of moonrise just before ten when we walked back to the quarters here. Udine at night is lit with a few light all dark blue. It's a beautiful city in itself – with a main square, a cathedral and a few other old building all grouped together which are extraordinary beautiful. The Loggia del Lionello in Udine

Cadorna Kipling in Udine. Radkliffe Anyhow my last letter to you must have gone into the bag here just before I went to see Cadorna at the Supremo Comando on the evening of the 9 th.

Udine – Pradamano - Buttrio km 14

All around the horizon, with thunderstorms in their laps, lie the mountains just like the Himalayas. Some are white with snow other only speckled: but they are all dark and forbidding.

PRADAMANO Round Udine the land is flat and cultivated to the last inch – wheat, vines and everywhere the closely pollarded gnarled mulberry trees; for this is a great silk country. Palazzo Giacomelli in Pradamano.

BUTTRIO The rivers with their shoals and reefs of white pebbles, are all milky blue green with snow water and they rise and fall without warning. Bridge near Buttrio.

Buttrio - Manzano km 6, 2

MANZANO The farm houses of any size; the country houses and the chateaux are all turned into hospital – but one sees nothing of the wounded. Buliding a Hospital in S. Giovanni di Manzano. The first training venue of “arditi” in Sdricca di Manzano.

Manzano - San Giovanni al Natisone km 3, 4

SAN GIOVANNI And all along in the clean stone villages one passes masses of troops either at instruction or in reserve.

San Giovanni al Natisone - Cormons km 8, 5

CORMONS Italian soldiers in 1915. Foreign journalists. Went on to Cormons … Austrian soliders in 1917.

Villa Locatelli near Cormons, turned into hospital. . The farm houses of any size; the country houses and the chateaux are all turned into hospital – but one sees nothing of the wounded.

. . . we had a lunch with General Capello who commands God knows what all on this front and will presently – I believe – launch a big attack. It was a simple business like lunch – curiously clean in all its appointments – cleaner to my mind than the French idea. Cemetery near Cormons. View of Cormons.

Cormons - Gradisca d’Isonzo km 11, 3

GRADISCA The walkway in Gradisca on the Isonzo river. Then we came out into the dry glaring sunlight all among the stone again and got into the car and fled down hill and recrossed the Isonzo into Gradisca,

Gradisca d’Isonzo - San Martino del Carso km 7, 6

SAN MARTINO DEL CARSO The road wound up among the wreck till we came to a few pale walls singing to themselves in the thin noon wind. Ruins of San Martino del Carso. That was all that was left of the village of San Martino – that, and a petrol pumping engine pumping water for the troops in the far off trenches somewhere on the side of the further hills. San Martino del Carso.

San Martino del Carso - Monte San Michele km. 2, 7

MONTE SAN MICHELE Then we reached a desolate quarry as it were of splintered stone on the very top of a stony ridge. That was St. Micheal – which is their Ypres and Hill 60 and all the rest. . . There were between 50 and 60, 000 dead somewhere alon there.

On San Michele, lookouts. Well we went; on foot, over these slivers of rent stone up to the top of the crest, picking our way among shell holes. A shell hole on stones is simply a funnel of finely shattered stone. San Michele.

CREDITS: Fotografie: Museo Centrale del Risorgimento, Roma Museo Civico del Risorgimento, Bologna Questa proposta di ciclo tour nasce dal lavoro svolto in più anni dalle classi quinte del settore Tecnico del Turismo i cui allievi hanno contribuito in varia misura alla sua realizzazione. Realizzato da Sara Iannotti Traduzioni di Sofia Ermiglia, Giorgia Pertoldi, Rossella Pugliese classe V A Tecnico del Turismo a. s. 2016 -2017 Revisione dei testi tradotti Maria Grazia Piovesan Coordinamento e ricerca storica di Giancarlo Martina il Laboratorio di Storia

Link http: //www. collezioni-f. it/kip_pir. html http: //digilander. libero. it/freetime 1836/libri 47. htm http: //books. google. it/books? id=q. C 9 w. JMG 0 OBw. C&pg=PA 462&lpg=PA 462&dq=The+Roads+of+ an+Army+and+Podgora+kipling&source=bl&ots=e. FVq 5 MLYQD&sig=B 3 Ekvc. X 6 l 6 As. Salobv. HVo. CZ NUTM&hl=it&sa=X&ei=dbar. UMG 3 OYPat. Abqn 4 Go. Bg&ved=0 CEAQ 6 AEw. BA#v=onepage&q=The% 20 Roads%20 of%20 an%20 Army%20 and%20 Podgora%20 kipling&f=false http: //www. kipling. org. uk/rg_mountains_intro. htm http: //www. kipling. org. uk/kip_fra. htm http: //www. piste-ciclabili. com