As Italy commemorates the 75th anniversary of its wartime surrender, signed on September 3rd, 1943 and made public five days later, researcher Anne Saunders tells the stories behind some of the most evocative World War II sites you can visit today.

Perhaps the best-known WWII sites in Italy are those at Cassino. However, the war also is commemorated at hundreds of less famous sites; six of those are noted below. For more information, please see the second edition of my book, A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy: Museums, Monuments, and Battlegrounds (2016).