The Roncole Verdi Parish Church of St Michael the Archangel has a plaque on the outside which commemorates the fact that in 1814 following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte Russian and Austrian troops invaded this territory chasing out the French who had dominated here. During one of these violent incursions a group of local women with their children took refuge inside the Church hoping that the soldiers would show respect for the sacred location, but this was not to be. Only one mother clutching her baby managed to save herself because she had the good idea of hiding in the belfry where the soldiers did not set foot: the mother was Luigia Uttini and the baby, not yet a year old, safe in his mother’s arms was Giuseppe Verdi.
