Saturday, May 17, 2025, the presentation of the book "the MULE – the Alpine hybrid" will be held at the Museo Nazionale Storico degli Alpini sul Doss Trento.
A fascinating work that tells the history, role and symbolism of the mule in the Alpine context, between military reality and mountain tradition.
I share the spirit with which this book was written, that is, to bring back to mind memories of military life, of "naja alpina", as the Author defines it, but, above all, I grasped the message to provide, to those who were not aware of it, a reason for reflection on the role of the mule in the Alpine Departments.
The stable was a school of life and those who approached the mules certainly also learned to know men better.
Therefore, beyond a dutiful historical framework on the use of the mule in the Royal Army (whose beginning coincides with the birth of the Alpini in 1872), the book reports the knowledge and techniques that were the basis of its use in the Mountain Artillery Batteries and in the Mortar Companies of the Alpine Battalions and outlines in plenty of detail, known only to those who lived that beautiful reality, the problems involved in the movement of subject units in various terrains and in the most diverse environmental conditions.
