Il Sentiero della Memoria di Vestenanova

In 2014, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the reprisals by the Nazi-fascists, Vestenanova commemorated its dead and the sacrifice of many families who were destroyed by the fires of their homes, barns, livestock, savings, and memories of a lifetime and organized a walk through the streets of the martyrs of July 10 (Luisi, Pezzati, Montanari, Brusaferri) with the presence of the banners of Alpini, Fanti, and retired Carabinieri and with the participation of hundreds of people.

Through meadows, woods, and valleys, a long and composed procession of people walked for 3 hours on a splendid sunny day, stopping at the neighborhoods that had been burned, at the tombstones or crosses that remember the places of the killings, and listening to the testimonies of children and grandchildren of the victims, in an atmosphere of emotion and respectful homage to the innocents who were slaughtered.

That dreadful 1944 presented a terrible toll of death and destruction: 15 civilian victims and 5 neighborhoods burned on July 10, 4 victims and 24 neighborhoods set on fire on September 12 and 14, and 3 victims on November 18.

22 innocent dead and a destroyed town in 1944, along with another 13 dead in 1945, led to Vestenanova being awarded the bronze medal for military valor, the only municipality in the province of Verona to receive this recognition, in addition to the gold medal of the city of Verona.

With the help of these precious witnesses, it was possible to reconstruct the events of that year and revisit the human stories of the 22 innocent victims of 1944. The memories have been collected in a booklet titled "The Painful Path of Memory. 1944-2014".