With Valor to the Stars (Virtute Siderum Tenus)

AVAILABLE AT MUGOT

On March 28, 1923, the Regia Aeronautica was born. In reality, Italians with stars had already been flying for almost forty years, since an Aerostatic Section was created within the 3rd Engineer Regiment in 1885. It was commanded by Count Alessandro Pecori Giraldi, a nobleman from Mugello, brother of the more famous Guglielmo, who would become one of the generals of the Italian victory in the Great War.

The book is edited by Giancarlo Paladini, son of Pietro Paladini (1915 - 2002), a Mugello aviator, Motor Marshal 1st Class, whose memoirs are recounted.

An old and small cardboard box, tied with a string, on a shelf that whenever I passed by the basement I had noticed among the many other boxes containing objects and mementos of my father and mother long since passed ‘ to another life,’ leaving their loved ones forever. I would never have imagined that inside that small box were collected and recounted like that, in a small space, the testimonies of a lifetime. Yes, it is true, I remember that many times in the silence I could hear my father speaking, and the words would rise from his kitchen on the ground floor as ‘hushed chatter’, interspersed with short pauses; I did not understand the reason for those monologues [...] Now I understand.

It is actually an audiobook, an illustrated, information-packed book accompanied by a USB flash drive containing videos, interviews, photos and other in-depth materials. Suitable for the curious and enthusiasts.