Descending from the summit of Mt. Calvario, along the road Giuliano-Trentini Volontari Irridenti, on a hairpin bend turning right, you can see a group of tall cypresses. Under the shade of these majestic trees lies, since December 1915, the tomb of Scipio Slataper, a Trieste native, writer and poet, who died during the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo while trying to take over Height 188.
It is quite a simple tomb, evidence of the rather speedy arrangements in place to bury soldiers in wartime. The tombstone, dedicated to the poet and his son Scipio II, who lost his life during the Russian Campaign (Second World War), is a replica of the original, which is preserved at the Museum of the Great War of Gorizia. Below the white cross, an inscription bears the following wording: 1st Infantry Regiment - Lieutenant SCIPIO SLATAPER FROM TRIESTE - for the freedom of his Karst - for the grandeur of Italy - lived nobly - died as a hero - Podgora 03rd December 1915.
This visit is quite significant, given the uniqueness of this tomb. It is quite rare, in fact, to find someone's tomb in the place where the person actually died. During the fascist regime, almost all cemeteries along the frontline, from the Stelvio Pass to Mt. Ermada, were dismantled and the bodies of soldiers, both Italians and Austro-Hungarians, moved to large ossuaries and memorials, becoming thus "occasions for mourning and manifestation of patriotism" (Fabio Todero, "Morire per la Patria", Gaspari, Udine, 2005, p. 79).
