Via Roma

We are exactly in Tarvisio. The Val Canale is a very narrow valley, about 30 km long. It lies in the far north-east of Italy; it is the last valley on Italian territory before reaching the two present-day borders with Austria and Slovenia. We, the people of the Val Canale, say that we are the first Europeans of Europe, because in our valley the basic languages of the old continent have always been spoken, namely the Latin language, the German language, the Slovenian language. These realities are now linked to borders, which, however, did not exist until 1918, because we were part — as we were part of Carinthia and part of Slovenia — of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Let us take Via Roma, for example: towards the right we see that there are old buildings which, from an architectural point of view, show the Austro-Hungarian influence: beautiful houses, old buildings.
On the left-hand side, instead, you will see a whole series of buildings constructed later, which show the change from the point of view of national belonging of our valley. When I tell these stories, I always refer to my dear dad. He was born in 1912; in 1918, after the end of the First World War, the Val Canale was annexed to Italy. In the first years, he attended primary school and used to say that the only change was that at a certain point the teacher had been changed: there was a very good teacher who came from Venezia Giulia. Teaching in schools was still in German, but the Italian language had been added as a foreign language. This went on until 1923, when during the school year, one fine day, the much-loved teacher disappeared and a male teacher arrived, who said to the children: “From today onwards, we speak only Italian here” and so from there, practically, the phase of the Italianisation of the Val Canale began. And unfortunately, we arrived at October 1939, when Mussolini and Hitler met in Berlin. Hitler had already invaded Poland and therefore needed people to send to the front. Mussolini said: “I do not trust the people of the Val Canale and the South Tyroleans because they are not true Italians. They have been Italians for too short a time.” And so they signed an agreement that gave the population of the Val Canale who were not Italian-speaking — at that time 90% of the population was German-speaking, 7% was Slovenian-speaking and only 3% was Italian-Friulian-speaking — the possibility of opting by signing a form through which the head of the family chose to cross the border — Austria no longer existed, there was already the Third Reich — while having to sell everything he owned before leaving. On the other side there was Hitler, who said: “Come, come, come: I will immediately give you a job and a house.”
Unfortunately, among us 90% of the population fell into this trap, let us call it that, and left. So, during the Second World War and immediately afterwards there were lots of empty houses here, because they were the houses of those who had opted to leave. My paternal grandfather had a construction company here in Tarvisio and said: “Before signing I’d like to go and see what Hitler would give me.” And he had actually gone over there, to Austria, and had returned home enthusiastic, saying: “I have seen the property Hitler would give me” and had decided to leave. When day X arrived, when my grandfather had to sign, my grandmother asked him: “Do you want to go?” And he, naturally: “Yes, yes, let’s go, let’s go.” She said to him: “If you want to go, go, but I am staying here.” And we stayed here. But ours was one of the few families that stayed.