Benedictine Abbey rebuilt after its destruction in WW II

Day 8: Cassino, Pompei, Sorrento
'hopped on the Mercedes bus and in utter comfort we ride south, though a beautiful mountainous region toward Monte Cassino. Most of Italy is hilly or mountainous.

For the past six days we had been in Rome. We had been surrounded by 1st and second century ruins, and a Vatican Museum with 1400 rooms filled to the brim with art from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Now, as we were headed towards Monte Cassino, through the mist, casting a blue light on the mountains on either side. We listened to Ricardo telling us about devastation suffered by the Italians during WW II. Arriving at Monte Cassino, we see nothing old. No ancient ruins. No Baroque buildings. Why? Because the town and the Abbey on the hillside above were destroyed during WW II. High above the city, St Benedict, along with his sister, St. Scholastica, founded the original Abbey in 529. The "Benedictine" Abbey was originally the site of a small temple to Apollo. St. Benedict recycled it. Over the years, the abbey was built up into a large basilica with three court yards and a beautiful Baroque church. In 1943, the Germans seized the Abbey and dug in, using it as their fortress because they were protected by mountains and could see any armies moving their way through the valley below.

This blood drenched land holds the memory of thousands of young men, in their teens and early twenties, struggling up the steep hillside towards their imminent death. The Allied Forces' attempt to take the Abbey began on Feb. 15, 1943. By May 1944, 15,000 soldiers from the Allied forces had died. Then, the decision was made to bomb the Benedictine Abbey to the ground. There is controversy now about the strategic usefulness of this destruction. In any case, donations were given from around the world to rebuild this abbey into something more lavish then Benedict might have approved.