Dear Readers of the Arena of Pola,
Dear Members and Friends supporting AIPI – LCPE Odv, 

The Torn Curtain. Why does this title summarize this month's special pages in L'Arena di Pola, extensively dedicated to the anniversary of the terrorist attack that occurred 79 years ago in Vergarolla?

Because, albeit very slowly and decidedly belatedly, it seems that somehow and somewhere the curtain has been torn away that obtusely, almost hermetically, closed the stage of a tragedy that struck Italy. A chosen definition because it symbolizes the opening of a hidden reality, a veil that for long hid something uncomfortable or painful. Once again, it has been impossible for the writer to restrain his mind, urged to chase images that have slowly materialized over time, linked to the memory of the countless voices heard over all these years, which recounted what our people had experienced and endured, in years of war and peace... and which for decades had been silenced.

August 18, 1946, Vergarolla beach, the carefree chatter of children, the friendly occasion for a family reunion, the anticipation for a sports competition organized by the Società Nautica Pietas Julia (the ancient Latin name for Pola), the explosion caused by the deliberate detonation of war remnants declared inert, the deaths of over 100 people – many of them horribly disintegrated – the wounding of many others, the blood-red sea into which seagulls swooped, voraciously attracted by the poor dismembered remains… A carnage, stubbornly and repeatedly, with indolence, defined for a long time as a mourning event, a misfortune, an accident… In-depth studies and qualified reportage (see the article by correspondent Lucia Bellaspiga in Avvenire https://bit.ly/47elFOh or the book "The Vergarolla Massacre" by Paolo Radivo, published by Libero Comune di Pola in Esilio (The Arena di Pola), increasingly shed light on the facts and background, even though this massacre has not yet been investigated. A right we are working towards, starting with a strong signal from the highest institutions.

In addition to the special pages dedicated to Vergarolla's anniversary, the summary also this time offers a variety of topics

-At the Mittelfest theatre, the story of the exodus from Pula was told.
-The Alpini and the ANVGD of Como
The 2025 Trieste Remembrance Race will celebrate Nino Benvenuti.
-The gondola connects Lussino and Venice
-In memory of Nazario Sauro
-They write to us
-The Memory is Young
-From the historical-geographical commentaries of Monsignor Giacomo Tommasini
-Online Thursday meetings resume on the ANVGD Milan page.
-The European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes
-Cinema from the Adriatic Border at the Venice Film Festival
-The dialect and the story of Roberto Stanich
-Marina Parladori's itineraries
-The columns: Istrian surnames, traditional Istrian cuisine, from the drawer of memories
-News and gleanings from everywhere
-The memory of those who are affectionately close to us in remembrance
-The victims of Vergarolla who could be identified and the video dedicated to the commemoration
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CdtA4mg7A/

Happy reading and see you next time

Viviana Facchinetti, your director

The Pula Arena, monthly magazine of the Association of Italians of Pula and Istria – Free Municipality of Pula in Exile Odv, can be requested in PDF format by writing to redazione.arena@yahoo.it