If you have the great fortune of living in Florence and you are not oblivious to your surroundings, you can learn something new every single day. I try to keep my eyes wide open.

On a favorite walk along the Arno River as I walk east of the city, I encountered this sign post in one section of the pretty gardens that align the walkway.

I must admit, I knew nothing about who the Victims of Via Fani were.

So, of course I looked it up.

The Via Fani ambush (or Via Fani massacre) was a terrorist attack carried out by militants of the Red Brigades on the morning of March 16, 1978 in Via Mario Fani in Rome to kidnap Aldo Moro, President of the National Council of the Christian Democrats, killing all the members of his escort. The kidnapping lasted 55 days and ended with the discovery of Moro’s body in the trunk of a red Renault 4 in Via Michelangelo Caetani.

The precise modalities of the ambush (codenamed within the Red Brigades operation “Fritz”), the operational details, the circumstances before and after the attack, the responsibilities, the members of the terrorist fire group, the possible presence of other components external to the Red Brigades or of external connivance and aid, are all aspects of the affair bitterly debated in court, parliament and in the press.

Lessons from the past and memories. It’s all here. Live and learn.