We often tend to think of war as a violent event where two opponents fight each other to the end without showing any signs of mercy. The truth was, however, quite different: soldiers of all countries, sharing the same fate, the same daily struggles of life inside a trench and with a sense of humanity still alive, were able to establish peaceful contacts with the enemy and on certain occasions to "proclaim" ceasefires. The most famous among these was undoubtedly the so-called "Christmas truce of 1914" on the western front when French and German troops exchanged Christmas greetings and small gifts, suspending their battle for a week.
Similar episodes also took place on the Italian front, especially in those areas on the frontline where the distance between the lines of trenches was small (such as, for example, on the peaks of Pal Piccolo, in Carnia). These contacts often served as occasions to exchange food or objects that their own armies would not distribute. Austro-Hungarian soldiers, for instance, would ask mostly for food because of the unreliable state of their rations. Each soldier was in fact entitled to only 250 grams of bread, 100 grams of pasta and 80 grams of meat, much less therefore than the Italians. On the other hand the soldiers of the Empire almost always had tobacco which was in short supply among the Italians. All this had to be done with the utmost discretion; whoever was discovered could be charged with conspiracy with the enemy and punished with imprisonment for ten years.
