Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GOING THE DISTANCE FOR THE RESISTANCE
In 1943-44, the Assisi Underground hid hundreds of Jewish Italians in Umbrian convents and monas-
teries, while the Tuscan Resistance forged travel documents for them - but the refugees needed those
documents fast, before they were deported to concentration camps by Fascist officials. Enter the fast-
est man in Italy: Gino Bartali, world-famous Tuscan cyclist, Tour de France winner and three-time
champion of the Giro d'Italia. After his death in 2003, documents revealed that during his 'training
rides' throughout the war years, Bartali had carried Resistance intelligence and falsified documents to
transport Jewish refugees to safe locations. Bartali was interrogated at the dreaded Villa Triste in
Florence, where suspected anti-Fascists were routinely tortured - but he revealed nothing. Until his
death, the long-distance hero downplayed, even to his children, his efforts to rescue Jewish refugees,
saying, 'One does these things, and then that's that.'
