Deciding to escape from Verona for the day, our objective was Fontanellato, a small town in north western Italy, approximately 20 kilometres west of Parma. 
Fontanellato is home to the Santuario Basilica della Beata Vergine del Santo Rosario, a Dominican sanctuary that commemorates a succession of miracles dating back to 1628. Monastic chanting provides a haunting backdrop to our brief tour of the convent.
The Rocca Sanvitale is a fortress-residence located in the centre of Fontanellato. Its origins can be traced back to the 13th century. Until as recently as the 1930s it was home to the descendants of the first Count of Sanvitale.
In 1943, Fontanellato was a prison town, home to 600 allied prisoners of war (POWs) who occupied a four storey building next to the monastery - PG49.
PG49 was a relatively tranquil place to see out the war. Wine was served with lunch and POWs were even issued with a daily ration of Vermouth!
At about 7.30pm on 8 September 1943, news of the armistice between Britain and Italy began to spread through the camp. By noon the following day, the detainees had filed past an impromptu Italian guard of honour and through a hole in the wire.
Amongst the escapees, was travel writer Eric Newby. He escaped with the help of a local girl called Wanda. He was recaptured in January 1944 and spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp.
After the war he returned to Italy and found Wanda. They were married in Florence in 1946. Newby wrote a book about his wartime experiences, Love and War in the Apennines. He died on 20 October 2006.
Another detainee was Major Richard Carver. Amongst the last to leave PG49, he made his way south with a pipe smoking colonel known as The Gloomy Dean.
Ill-equipped for their journey through the mountains in the brutal Italian winter, Carver somehow made it to the American headquarters on the outskirts of Atessa, where he asked to see his stepfather, Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery.
Major Carver died on 24 July 2007 aged 93. His story is told by his son Tom Carver, the former BBC foreign correspondent, in "Where the hell have you been? Monty, Italy and one man's incredible escape", published in 2009.
Dan Billany was a teacher and writer. He joined the army in October 1940. In February 1942, he was posted to North Africa, where his platoon was over-run by Rommel's tanks. He was captured and held at Camp 66, north of Naples, where he met David Dowie, another English POW.
Dowie and Billany were then transferred to Camp 17 at Rezzanello, where Billany completed The Trap, a fictionalised account of his life. At the beginning of April 1943 they were moved to Fontanellato, where they began to collaborate on a novel based on their prison life, The Cage
After escaping from PG49, with the help of local families, Dowie and Billany began to make their way over the Apennines towards the Allied forces, leaving behind the exercise books containing their manuscripts.
In March 1946, Dan's thirteen exercise books arrived at the Billany home in Yeovil, Somerset. They became bestsellers and were translated into many languages.
Neither Dan nor David made it back to England.
They are thought to have perished somewhere in the Apennines.
notesfromverona.com/blog/a-great-e…
They are thought to have perished somewhere in the Apennines.
notesfromverona.com/blog/a-great-e…
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