On Friday, May 20^th, we arrived in Pergine Valdarno, a small village in Tuscany, after renting a car in the city of Chiusi where we arrived by train from Bologna.  This place is so enchanting and beautiful.  It is now Sunday evening and we just finished dinner.  This is the place where we have stepped back and relaxed a couple of notches.  We were sitting on our front porch and greeting the neighbors as they happen to walk by.  One lady lives in nearby Montevarchi, a town about 20 miles away.  She comes to Pergine Valdarno every year for a week or so to stay because as she said, “This is where you can rediscover the real spirit of Toscana!”  Here is a photo taken as we approach our villa on our walk back from a local restaurant tonight.  It is so absolutely peaceful here.

Earlier today we drove to the Florence American Cemetery, about six miles south of Florence.  It is the final resting place for 4,402 Americans who were killed in the battles in northern Italy as the Allied forces advanced on Hitler’s troops in Italy after liberating Rome from the Germans and continued their advance past Florence to Bologna. It was a sobering memorial and left all of us thankful for the freedoms we enjoy as a result of the sacrifices of those now long since forgotten.  Each grave is marked with a marble cross or star of David.  There were the two brothers who are buried next to each other.  Private Walter J. Lis died in battle on October 1, 1944 and his brother,Private First Class John A. Lis who was in the same unit was killed in battle a month later on November 5, 1944.  There is a Medal of Honor winner in the cemetery.  There were countless graves marked simply with the words, “Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.”  We found also a quote from General Dwight Eisenhower on a wall which rings true to this day, “Freedom from fear and injustice and oppression will be ours only in the measure that men who value such freedom are ready to sustain its possession – to defend it against every thrust from within or without.”   We are all so, so blessed.

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