Prologue
After the end of the conflict, the tragic end of the battleship Roma was buried by the shame of the Italian 8th September.
A veil of silence was also spread by many of the veterans themselves; the horror experienced, the lack of understanding of greater facts of their 20 years of which they were unaware victims, the sense of shame for a lost war and an ignominious surrender led most of them to avoid telling these memories.
Then, over time, the fog began to clear. The new generation, the children and grandchildren of the survivors, began to ask, to try to understand what the memories of those sailors were hiding. And Rome has slowly returned to the scene, with all its beauty, its horror and all the questions that still have no answer.
Then, in 1993, the son of one of the survivors, a journalist for the newspaper "Gente", tracks down, in Germany, one of the DO217 pilots who dropped the bombs on Rome. And a moving and historic meeting took place in Rome between some survivors and the two pilots responsible for the sinking.
Then, in 2003, officially reappeared on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the sinking. Until then, anniversaries had been commemorated with intimate ceremonies, between the few survivors and the Navy.
In 2003, the then President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, instead wanted to pay homage to Rome, Admiral Bergamini and CT Da Noli and Vivalti, also tragically sunk that 9 September in the waters of Asinara, promoting a superb exhibition naval in those waters.
Since then, the Roma with Admiral Bergamini and his crew have returned to occupy an important place both in the Navy, and in the historical reinterpretation of the second conflict and therefore in the national consciousness.
Of particular importance was the contribution of Commander Pier Paolo Bergamini, son of Admiral Carlo, who with painstaking patience reconstructed all the documented facts relating to the "last mission of Rome" and the list of the fallen.
And finally, in 2012, the discovery of the wreck by the Navy, with the incredible photographs taken by the ROV Pluto of Eng. Gay and site mapping.
July 1993. Veterans Marcello Vacca Torelli, Ferdinando Vona, Francesco Saverio Berardi and Arturo Catalano Gonzaga di Cirella meet with Luftwaffe pilots Jope and Stumpf
September 9, 2003.The President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi pays tribute to the fallen of Roma from Da Noli and Vivaldi in the bodo of Nave San Giorgio.
June 17, 2012.The Italian Navy officially communicates, in the presence of all those who participated in the identification and certification of the identity of the wreck of the military ship, that it has photographed the wreck of the Rome.
With great emotion we witnessed the broadcast on the WEB and on the main television networks of the first video made with the ROV of Eng. Gay.
We publish here the videos of the MM and some particularly engaging images of the wreck. With my thoughts turned to the many young people who fell on that cursed 9th September 1943.
