The path of soldier Hans

In June 2015 a very scenic path was inaugurated on Mount Portofino which from Batterie in about thirty minutes reaches in Punta Chiappa , the tongue of rock that juts out into the sea below and the bay of Porto Pidocchio.

The priceless beauty is combined with the historical value of this path that was traced on the basis of the ancient one, dating back to the Second World War to transport the materials necessary to build the military posts and later used by German soldiers to move from one bunker to another, artifacts still visible today,. < br />
The initiative started with Mr. Gianpiero Zunino, president of the Regional Group of the CAI who, due to a fire that made some ancient passages visible, walked the path and reported it to the Park Authority of Portofino, suggesting that it could be opened to visitors.
And so it was.

The trail was named after the young German soldier Hans Hill who spent a few months at the Chiappa Battery and kept a diary of this period, noting emotions and descriptions of the surrounding landscape, defining the weeks spent here as the most beautiful of his military life,

"... here among the rocks we felt better than in the city: we were truly free and independent", in vivid contrast to the harsh previous period which also brought him to Russian prisons.
< br /> Hans Hill's notes have been translated and published in a book "My diary 1942-1945. From Monte di Portofino to imprisonment in Russia. The memories of a young German soldier seconded in Punta Chiappa ", an extraordinary testimony of how the Second World War was experienced on Mount Portofino.