쉬운 파르코 프로빈시알레 데이 몬티 리보네시 하이킹 및 워킹 코스

The monument was dedicated to COSTANZO CIANO, and not to Edda Mussolini, daughter-in-law of Costanzo Ciano

Near the Sanctuary square there are benches where you can stop and enjoy a beautiful view from Livorno

Montenero Alto is definitely worth a visit, perhaps using (with a normal city bus ticket) the nice funicular that leaves from Piazza delle Carrozze, in Montenero Basso. The Sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna di Montenero, protector of Livorno and Patron Saint of Tuscany, is very interesting; the Church, in rich Baroque style, also houses an impressive collection of humble and rich ex-votos, the result of intense popular devotion over the centuries. In the Famedio, the portico in front of the entrance to the Sanctuary, there are cenotaphs and tombs of people who distinguished themselves in the world of culture, politics, art... who were born or lived in Livorno. Furthermore, from the Sanctuary square and its surroundings you can admire magnificent views from above not only of the city, but - proceeding from southwest to northeast - also of the sea and the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago (and on clear days even of Corsica), of the coast up to Liguria, of the Apuan Alps and of the western Apennines. Finally, going up via della Porcigliana to Castellaccio, you can reach the top of the Montenero hill (over 300 m above sea level) and from here enjoy a wide, splendid panorama.

Beautiful view of the city, the sea and the islands from the Ciano Monument

I would also put my signature on Uncle Scrooge's deposit. Too similar!

Along the itinerary, which from via del Tirreno climbs regularly towards the Sanctuary of Montenero, a short but demanding detour (narrow road, at times very steep and with a severely bumpy ground), leads to the Monteburrone locality and flanks the so-called Monumento a Ciano"; this should have been a mausoleum intended to contain the remains of the powerful fascist hierarch Costanzo Ciano and his family. The construction, started in 1940, had to include a high base on which to erect both a Ciano's statue 12 meters high and a tower, in the shape of lictor's fasces, of 54 meters. But it remained unfinished, leaving an enormous gray cube, almost twenty meters high, with an unpleasant and gloomy appearance, placed however in front of the enchanting panorama of the Livorno coast, its sea and islands. As for Ciano, the Pharaonic Mausoleum did not bring good luck to him, as he died before construction started, nor to his son Galeazzo, sentenced to death and shot by his father-in-law Benito Mussolini, nor to Mussolini himself who, two years later, lost government , war and life. The monument also suffered a sad fate: it remained unfinished and in a state of neglect among brushwood, waste and ruins. Lately there are those who have proposed to tear it down, some to transform it into a hotel, a museum or even, appropriately repainted, in the ... Uncle Scrooge's deposit!

The mausoleum was built starting in 1939 following the death of the fascist hierarch Costanzo Ciano, father of the more famous Galeazzo, to house the remains of his family and was financed by a public subscription opened by the Podestà of Livorno. The project for the Mausoleum of Ciano was grandiose: a 12 meter high statue was to rest on a large base and an imposing 50 meter lighthouse reproducing an enormous fasces was to complete the work. The lighthouse was actually built but was demolished by the Germans who mined it shortly before abandoning Livorno, while the statue that was supposed to portray Costanzo driving an MAS is still found unfinished in the quarry on the island of Santo Stefano in Sardinia. Today, all that remains of the mausoleum is the base on which the statue must have stood, a vaulted room supported by enormous columns, which can be accessed from an entrance in front of which is the massive lid and the red marble sarcophagus. Instead of Ciano's remains, the sarcophagus houses the vegetation and water that has collected over the course of about seventy years. The interior is covered in graffiti and writings. Two rooms open respectively on the left and on the right, next to the entrance: one was to house the stairs and the other the lift (as can still be seen from some traces) which would have taken visitors to the lighthouse.

breathtaking view of Livorno, on clear days you can also see the Apennines and up to the Ligurian coast