Fugitives in the lagoons

Gaspare Matteucci borrowed a second boat into which Leggero climbed so as to lighten the load in the other boat containing Garibaldi and Anita. Girolamo Carli and Mariano Cavallari (known as Sgiorz) sailed the first boat while Michele Cavallari (known as Gerusalemme) and Giuseppe Cinto (known as Scozzola) the second boat. The fugitives thus arrived at the "tabarra", a fishing hut in the Agosta  lagoon where the assistant guard Battista Ferroni courteously received them. Meanwhile, Gaspare Matteucci went to Comacchio to make further arrangements with Nino Bonnet and find more brave boatmen willing to continue the journey across the lagoons. These were the Guidi brothers Michele (known as Tetavach) and Marino (known as Erma Bianca) both in Comacchio who undertook to continue the journey.

At 8 a.m. Anita was again placed in a boat.

They set off again for 16 km under a scorching sun through the lagoon of Mezzano, the Caldirolo canal, Fossa di Porto and Vacca lagoon. Towards 1 p.m. the fugitives arrived at the guardhouse of the Chiavica Bedoni, or 'di Mezzo' (9) near the left bank of the River Reno (Po di Primaro). (10).

The death of Anita

Helped by the young men Benigno Samaritani and Antonio Feletti, son of the Chiavica custodian, who did excellent work in exploring and finding food, Erma Bianca made a little broth for Anita but she was unable to swallow it. At the same time, Tetravach, entreated by Garibaldi to find a doctor went to Sant'Alberto in search of Francesco Manetti (know as Chicazza). Instead he found the brother, Battista Manetti  (known as Bunazza) who was driving his cabriolet drawn by his horse 'Plon' to the Fiera di Primaro. Tetravach told Bunazza about the situation then got in with him and galloped up to the front of the guardhouse of the Chiavica Bedoni on the left bank of the Po di Primaro.

Anita, carried for about 300 metres and then ferried across the river at 5.30 p.m. was laid now in agony on the cabriolet from which the seats had been removed. Garibaldi on one side helped and comforted her and with a desperate heart monitored her breathing.

Manetti lead the way at the head of his willing 'Plon' who seemed to have guessed the nature of the merciful mission slowly drawing the carriage over the rough ground.

The indomitable Leggero, head bowed in thought, followed what had practically become a funeral procession on a foggy background in which ravenous wolves in the form of Austrians followed their prey.

The indefatiguable Tetravach was again sent to Sant’Alberto and this time to find Doctor Nannini – medical officer of Sant’Alberto – to arrange a meeting at the Guiccioli farm (11) together with Chicazza.

The slow sad journey with Anita almost unconscious continued towards the farm 3 km away.

It took almost an hour and a half as the condition of the road often required the carriage to be lifted by hand to avoid excessive jolts. On arrival at the Guiccioli farm, farmed and managed Stefano Ravaglia, Doctor Nannini and Chicazza were already waiting.

Garibaldi wrote in his memoirs “We four the (alluding to himself, Leggero, Battista Manetti and Doctor Nannini) each took a corner of the mattress and moved her into the bed of a room at the top of a flight of stairs in the house. On laying my win the bed she seemed to have an expression of death in her face. I took her pulse… it had stopped. I had before me the mother of my children whom I loved so much, a corpse”.

Those present at her passing away were Doctor Nannini, Manetti, Leggero, the brothers Gaspare and Geremia Baldini together with their cousin Angelo Rasini, also from Ravenna who happened to be hunting with bows. Giuseppe Ravaglia the brother of Stefano was also there.

The desperation of Garibaldi almost reached delirium. After covering her with kisses, with difficulty he let go of the poor remains of Anita.

“For your children… for Italy” Leggero whispered to him.

The house was crowded with more than twenty people because, being Saturday, the agricultural workers met at the farm to receive their pay. Many of those present recognised Garibaldi but none of them uttered a single word against the hero.

While Garibaldi cried over the body of the young woman who had been a divine companion for ten years and shared the pride of the victories, the fatigue of long marches, the torment of defeat, Pietro Fabbri and Vincenzo Vitali, both from S. Alberto, arrived from Ravenna. They told Garibaldi that they had been sent by the engineer Giovanni Montanari of Ravenna to advise him to leave as soon as possible and to trust them.

The engineer Montanari of Ravenna

Montanari was a conspirator well-known to the police. Formerly a ‘Carbonaro’, participating in the march on Rome in 1831, lead by General Sercognani and commander of the men of Ravenna the year before at the siege of Vicenza, Fabbri had been sub-lieutenant under the command of Montanari. Dr. Nannini, a sergeant in 1831, became a medical captain in 1860 under Garibaldi. The others named below who were brave and solid members of the real ‘trafila’ in the area of Ravenna had been soldiers of Montanari in the actions he commanded.

At 8.30 p.m. Garibaldi, after piously and insistently reminding them to give a good burial to Anita’s remains, left with Leggero in the two carriages driven by Dr. Nannini and Chicazza. Preceded by Fabbri and Vitali they set off towards Sant’Alberto about 8 km away.

Arriving 500 metres outside the village Garibaldi and Leggero got out in a farm of Sebastiano Vicari to await the return of Vitali, Fabbri and Ferdinando Matteucci, brother of Gaspare, who had pushed forward to explore since there were Austrian patrols in the area. Soon after, these three lead them across the fields and then ducked for cover in a vegetable garden behind a house belonging to Andrea Guarini in vicolo Poazzo in Sant’Alberto. (13)

They waited here until about 11 p.m. then after ten minutes following the ditch of Guarini’s vegetable patch, took the Cavedone road, and Rivalone road, for a distance of about 300 metres. They were then led to the house of Giuseppe and Ferdinando Matteucci, Gaspare’s brothers, in via Po. (14).