To Vicenza, with love

Posted by CODEPINK Staff

Vicenza, four hours north of Rome between Venice and Milan, is a classically Italian city with two important footnotes.

It's a U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage site, home to numerous architectural works by the Venetian architect, Andrea Palladio, widely considered the most influential architect in the history of Western architecture. Citizens of Vicenza and its surrounding suburbs live in neighborhoods characterized by manicured lawns and gardens, clay roofs, Italian tiled walkways, coffee bars and immaculate streets and bus stops.

And just outside the city one finds the U.S. Army base called Caserma Ederle, headquarters of the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the United States Army where troops take off on missions to Iraq and Afghanistan.

A city so classically Italian, such a placid scene, is obscenely tainted by the cadence of U.S. Army soldiers stomping through the town plaza disrespectful of the ground they tread (see video of Army soldiers running through the city here).

So says Cinzia Bottene, a not-so-ordinary mother of a teenaged son who gave birth to the No Dal Molin Movement, took on her nation's government and the U.S. military by saying,  "No, not in my town!"  She was recently elected to the city's council on this platform.

I first met Cinzia when she arrived to Washington, D.C. in May 2007 and stayed at CODEPINK's  house there. She and three other Italians came to meet with members of Congress and the Pentagon to voice their opposition to the once secret plans to build yet another U.S. base near their homes. This additional base, named Dal Molin, would facilitate future deployments to the Middle East, North and sub-Saharan Africa, where the U.S. military are pressing for a permanent presence.

I met Cinzia again in December 2007, as an invited member of CODEPINK, to attend in solidarity one of the numerous No Dal Molin actions that mobilized tens of thousands to Vicenza protesting the new base. Cinzia welcomed me and other CODEPINKers who visited before me, to her beautiful home and her gourmet cooking all the while planning, writing and practicing her speeches with the help of other members in the movement.

A year and a half later, Cinzia returned to D.C. in hopes of pressing the new Obama administration on this important issue. She and three others of the No Dal Molin movement even demonstrated during an House Armed Services Committee hearing, raising their "NO DAL MOLIN" banner and chanting during the testimony. Returning to D.C. a month later, Cinzia testified before a Congressional committee imploring members to hold back funds for the construction of the new base.