Flying USA – September 2019

30 | SEPTEMBER 2019 FLYINGMAG.COM

TAKING WING

AIR

LIFE

IN THE

DOVE LA STORIA DECOLLA

AN ITALIAN AVIATION ADVENTURE

By Sam Weigel

B

ecause I’m both an airplane

nut and history buff, many of

my European work layovers involve

either seeking out aerial adven-

tures or investigating some bit of the

2,000  years of tumultuous history

that seem to lurk around the conti-

nent’s every corner. Often, I am able

to combine these interests—for a great

deal of aviation history took place in

Europe, and much of it is well-docu-

mented. The airplanes, theaters and

campaigns of World War II are likely

the most familiar to Americans, for

whom the ultimate “just war”—and

America’s heroic role in it—fills both

grade school textbooks and untold

hours of cable TV programming. The

aviation history of World War I and

the interwar period, on the other

hand, is much more obscured by

greater gaps of time, technology and

culture—and the fact that so few air-

planes of that time still exist, much

less f ly. Lately, I’ve been trying to f lesh

out my knowledge of European avia-

tion history between 1914 and 1938,

and to that end I recently enjoyed

two enlightening outings during lay-

overs in Venice, Italy, and Shannon,

Ireland. The former is my subject for

this month, while the latter will have

to wait for the October issue.

Ven ic e (Vene z ia in Italian) is a

picturesque city with a long and

eventful history, but it is not a place

naturally associated with aviation.

The historical center is crowded

onto a small island bisected by hun-

dreds of canals, and the only place

for an airport is across the lagoon in

the neighboring city of Mestre. And

indeed, I probably never would have

known about the aviation gem only 50

kilometers north of the city if not for

the acquaintance of Federico Orsolini,

Italian airline pilot and longtime

reader of this column. Federico and

I have been corresponding via email

for years, and he extended a stand-

ing offer to take me to a grass airstrip

with a gaggle of World War I replicas

my next time in town. Alas, Venice

The Venetian Prealps form a tranquil back-

drop to a flight over a storied battlefield.