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VIDICIATICO, Italy – Three Italian men – one an architect, one a “Mr. Fix It” and the other a dealer in World War II artifacts – have in common an unusual hobby: Imitating U.S. Soldiers.
Massimo Berti, 28, Filippi Fulvio, 41, and Giovanni Sulla, 38, here portraying World War II 10th Mountain Division Soldiers in a documentary film about the American ski troops, admit their shared pastime is a strange sort of thing for adult Italian males.
“I’m crazy, no?” Berti asks rhetorically about playing American Soldier.
A successful architect who earned his master’s degree from the University of California at Berkley and a former body builder – Berti could spend weekends in the clubs in his hometown Torino meeting women and living out his youth like other handsome Italian men with money in their pockets. Instead, he spends his weekends and his money playing a military police sergeant in the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division. He even owns an up-armored Humvee – “except for the doors,” he said. “Armor is in high demand, now.”
Fulvio, a former captain in the Italian army, earns a living as a handyman in Turin. Among his playmates, though, “Major” Fulvio is their executive officer.
And Sulla is their commander and the most involved member. He keeps a museum of World War II regalia in the center of the Tuscan town of Montesse. The most prized portion of his collection: All things 10th Mountain. So enamored with the division is Sulla that he actually dressed in World War II 10th Mountain gear at his wedding.
“The 10th is my passion,” he said.
During the filming, Sulla often spotted inaccuracies in wardrobes and scenic locations, each time bringing them to Kealy’s attention by pointing to pictures in history books that showed the facts. And during breaks, with a glass of wine raised above his head, he never failed to toast the 10th Mountain Division motto: “Climb to Glory!”
At the end of the reenactment filming Feb. 5, Kealy arranged for a ceremony to honor Sulla, Fulvio and Berti for their hard work. Kealy, a niece of a 10th Mountain Division veteran killed on Mount Belvedere in 1945, presented Sulla with a letter from her uncle’s commander.
“It explains how my uncle fought and was killed on Mount Belvedere,” Kealy explained to Sulla as he struggled to read and translate it.
As the letter’s meaning became clear, tears began to fill his eyes.
“This is beautiful,” he said. “This is beautiful.”
As fanatical as their pastime may seem, they do it with an extreme sense of gratitude to American Soldiers for their sacrifices in Italy during World War II and in Iraq and Afghanistan today, they said.
“This is a great honor for me because some of these battles (being reenacted) happened here in my town, in the mountains around my home,” Sulla said.
Fulvio said he feels humbled by the sacrifice, ever constant, of the American Soldier.
“I do not want American Soldiers to think we disrespect them by doing this,” he said. “We believe in the traditions and values of the U.S. Army. They inspire us. We truly wish to honor the (American) Soldier.”
As reenactors in Kealy’s documentary, these three men sensed the essence of being U.S. Soldiers like never before.
| Date Taken: | 02.17.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 01.08.2016 13:21 |
| Story ID: | 185897 |
| Location: | VIDICIATICO, IT |
| Web Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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