A small mill and Italian family helped save 500 Allied soldiers: Here is how

In the Italian countryside of Zeri is an old chestnut mill that housed partisans and escaped prisoners of war during World War 2. Soldiers arriving here had to travel over steep hills and were sometimes near-naked from months spent as POWs.

A small group of international soldiers banded at the mill and fought as part of the Italian resistance movement, separate from any political ties.

The 'Battaglione Internazionale' had permanent lines of communication with the Allies, organised crucial supply drops by air and later helped 500 Allied troops to escape Italy.

The mill is now overgrown by vines with wild violets and daffodils growing along the path.

But it is this tiny building and the family that ran it that prompted my parents to go to Zeri, bordering Liguria and Tuscany. Just days before Anzac Day, they stayed with people they had never met, who spoke a language they did not know.

My great grandfather, Alan Garbutt of Wingello in NSW, was housed in the mill after he escaped as a prisoner of war. As one of just two allied soldiers who spoke fluent Italian, he reported directly to the head of the battalion and was responsible for organising crucial supply drops from the United States into Italy.

His life was saved by 14 year old Giovanni Tognarelli, whose family owned the mill, from approaching Germans.

Mr Tognarelli diverted soldiers who tried to search the area, keeping the Italian partisans safe. Among them was my great grandfather.

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Mum visited Italy to thank Mr Tognarelli, now in his 90s, for his bravery and to learn more about her poppy.

"Without him, none of us would be here," she told me before she left.

My mother did not know her grandfather had been sheltered by the Tognarelli family consistently during his time in Italy. He rarely spoke about the war to his own sons or my mother.

She did not know her grandfather lived as an Italian and not in the international battalion - a very rare thing for international soldiers fighting in the resistance.

She also did not know Mr Tognarelli wrote to her grandfather in 1951 and never received a reply.

Most of all, mum did not know how deeply the Tognarelli family cared for her poppy.

"It seems they loved him," she said.

She was not expecting to be greeted by the extended family, who welcomed my parents into their houses, fed them and spent almost a week taking them through the hills where the fighting occurred 80 years ago.

"The warmth of the welcome and hospitality we received demonstrates the power of human connection and love," she said.

"To know my poppy received the same welcome gives me a deep sense of peace and resolution."