The First World War Diary of Gregorio Ceccato
Published by: Kyra Bates and Sandra Parmegiani
Introduction
In 2021, the Ceccato family of Guelph lent a family diary to the Italian Heritage Project with the hopes that the journal could be studied. The diary was composed by Gregorio Ceccato, pictured above, who was an infantry officer with the 8° Reggimento Artiglieria Terrestre “Pasubio”, the 8th “Pasubio” Land Artillery Regiment. Born and raised in Asolo, an Italian city located just 60km north of Venice in the province of Treviso, Ceccato joined the army in 1917 in Vittorio Veneto, just 45km northeast of Asolo. As an officer, Ceccato fought in many significant battles of the war, including the Second Battle of the Piave River, and in his handwritten account he details his impressive knowledge of the army’s artillery. Aside from documenting what he learned as a fighter, Ceccato also discusses his personal life and the many hardships he faced following the war’s end. His entire diary is currently being analyzed, transcribed, and translated into English as part of a larger project aiming to publish the diary for public access. Below is a link to the first study of a section, which is clearly distinct from the rest of the diary’s content. This section, placed at the end of the diary, is a letter Ceccato wrote and addressed to Benito Mussolini in 1934, sixteen years after the end of the war.
Diary Contents
The Diary of Gregorio Ceccato – His Letter to Benito Mussolini