Per Chi Suona La Campana.pdf File

“Don’t turn around.” Elena’s voice, low and fierce. “I followed you. You weren’t coming back, were you?”

Marco stood still. “The bell. When we blow the bridge, they’ll know. They’ll shoot everyone in the village.” Per Chi Suona La Campana.pdf

No one knows exactly how long Marco and Elena kept ringing. The partisan attack from the woods came at half past twelve. By two in the morning, the Germans had retreated. “Don’t turn around

But the bell itself was silent. And on the floor of the tower, tangled together like two fallen leaves, lay a boy and a girl. They had no papers, no weapons. Only each other’s hands, still clasped. “The bell

A remote mountain village in northern Italy, autumn 1944. The war between Fascist/ German forces and the Partisans has reached the high valleys. The old mule track wound up through the chestnut woods like a scar. Marco knew every stone, every turn, because he’d been born in the stone farmhouse that clung to the ridge above. Now, at twenty-two, he lay belly-down in the wet ferns, binoculars pressed to his eyes, watching the grey column of smoke rise from his own chimney.

“So you were going to set the charge and then ring the bell yourself. A warning.”

“I remember.”