We had come to Bleggio by car, prescription traversing mountain roads to reach this remote area of the Dolomites directly north of Lake Garda. Driving from southern Trentino we headed down towards Riva, a tourist town on the northern shores of the lake, and then due north, gaining altitude as we zipped up a valley pass. Sheer peaks and dense forest penned us in the higher we went, until we reached a plateau of rolling hills and a herb-flecked meadow.

It was to this protected alpine world that my grandmother, great aunt and two great uncles had fled as children in the final years of the second world war, living alone on a small farm while their parents were forced to remain in their occupied hometown of Ala.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com