The following is an announcement published in the Giornale di Udine on 15 March 1906.
“Tomorrow, the 18th, the excursion with the previously published itinerary will take place: departure from Udine heading to Cividale, 5:54 am. From Cividale to Savogna by car; from Savogna to Cepletischis at Luico. Breakfast. Departure from Luico at 11, peak of Mount Kuk, descent to Ravne, Clodig, San Leonardo. Back to Cividale by car. Arrival in Udine at 10:50 pm. Places can be reserved at the association headquarters until midday on Saturday, the 17th.”
On 19 March, four days later, an article was published with an eloquent title. The usual from Austria. A group from Udine on a trip to the border was arrested for espionage.
It read: “Yesterday morning, six members of the SAF, more precisely, Arturo Ferrucci, Lorenzo Morelli, Dr Spellanzon, Ugo Camavitto, Mr Sanguinetti, a cashier at that branch of the Bank of Italy and Aleardo Ermacora from Martignacco, left for the alluring trip. Once the distinguished tourists reached the pleasant valley of Riecco, they enthusiastically admired the wonderful view. Yet, although the beautiful sites of the landscape were entirely Italian, the unjust border had reduced them to part of the Austrian Empire.
Mr Camavitto, an amateur photographer who had his trusty camera with him, decided to take a few negatives of the stunning surroundings. In so doing, he inspired Austrian gendarmes to pounce upon the party, undoubtedly viewing them like the many spies plotting against the Empire and drafting maps of local sites and fortifications.
The travellers were told they were under arrest and, although they produced cards, IDs and other documents which served to prove their identities, the guards escorted them to Caporetto.
Mr Camavitto, worried about the natural anxiety of his kind young wife, who awaits a joyful domestic event any day now, sent a telegram to let her know the reason for his absence, reassuring her. That way the families of the other travellers could be alerted too.
The news of the new provocation of friendly Austria towards those egregious countrymen of ours, which spread through the city last night, gave rise to a true sense of indignation, not so much for the danger they were in, as they certainly would be released, as they are guilty of nothing, but for the truly unspeakable act they had been subject to.
The paperwork for the speedy liberation of those arrested was started at once.
Dr Perusini, who was in Cormòns, immediately went to Gorizia to request the favourable services of the deputy of that city, the honourable Lenazzi.
Mr Schiavi, attorney at law, and Mr Pico went to the prefect this morning, managing to get information promptly sent to the Austrian authorities about those arrested.
Telegrams were even exchanged with Rome.
Roberto Burghart, brother-in-law of Mr Camavitto, has left for Caporetto. We have no doubt that our egregious countrymen undoubtedly will be released and that, to do so, it won’t be necessary to wait for the film negatives to be sent to Vienna to be developed, as was said this morning.
At any rate, as our take on this regretful event, all that’s left is for the Italian authorities to make their voices heard and object to such arbitrary actions by Austria in relation to citizens who deserve nothing but respect. Said actions are not at all justified by fair territorial protection criteria. Instead, they demonstrate a desire to carry out provocative transgressions against Italians.”
At the bottom of the article, a short title in italics indicated an update that apparently arrived shortly before the paper went to print:
Liberation.
“We have learned that the arrested citizens were released this morning. The terrible political criminals will be in Udine this evening”.
But the news didn’t end there. The Giornale di Udine didn’t let go of this juicy scoop and the following day, 20 March 1906, it published a lengthy article with the title: Residents of Udine arrested in Austria. Their return to Udine. Our interview.
Yesterday we published the news which arrived telegraphically that the six citizens of Udine arrested while on an Alpine hike on Mount Kuk—Ugo Camavitto, Arturo Ferrucci, Mr Sanguinetti, Dr Spellanzon, Aleardo Ermacora and Lorenzo Morelli—had been freed.
They reached Udine yesterday evening by train from Cividale at 5:46.
Many of their friends were there to welcome them at the station, affectionately and joyously embracing them and bombarding them with questions about their adventures.
Students from Gabelli Boarding School were waiting for them in the square in front of the station with a band, but the six men averted this uproarious demonstration, inopportune although inspired by good intentions as it was, exiting via the gates near the custom house.
That didn’t stop the notes of the royal march from reaching them, as they already were close to Palazzo Muzzatti.
Last night we hurried to interview one of the distinguished ex-detainees.
The mostly comedic details of the event are so numerous that an entire newspaper couldn’t contain them.
“How did the arrest take place?”, we asked the distinguished interviewee.
“We set out from Savogna and we had reached Cepletischis Luico, where we stopped to have breakfast, when an Austrian tax police officer arrived at the trattoria. He began assaulting us with questions, asking us for our IDs, inquiring about where we came from, where we were going, and so on.
We were being asked those questions, as we realized after the fact, to buy enough time for a gendarme, who had been sent out by the customs officer, to arrive.
And indeed, after half an hour, the gendarme arrived, all out of breath. He ordered us, in the name of the law, to follow him to Caporetto.”
“And on the journey that followed?”
“It was a quite comedic ordeal. At a certain point, the gendarme who escorted us was struck by a rather urgent need and, motioning to the tax police officer to keep an eye on us, he rushed down into a ditch to relieve himself. We continued on, then we waited for the gendarme.
In the meantime, Mr Morelli was struck by the same need and he ran behind a barn. In the meantime, the gendarme, like in the Barber of Seville, yelled: “There were six but now there are five!”. The police officer pointed to the barn and the gendarme ordered him to call for Mr Morelli. He hurried to finish getting dressed, but the gendarme sent the police officer to see de visu what Mr Morelli had left behind.
Luckily, no compromising materials were found!”
In jail.
“After having walked for an hour and a half, we came to Caporetto, where we underwent an initial interrogation by the head of the gendarmerie, who stated we were under arrest, confiscating all of our wallets, just to be safe.
After three hours in the large room at the station, between two armed gendarmes, we were taken to the jail, where at 7 pm the local judge appeared, interrogating us at length.
Smarter than the gendarme (it didn’t take much!), he immediately realized that the whole thing was the latter’s gaffe.
But he said that he couldn’t free us because he hadn’t received the written report from the gendarmes.”
The Slavic warden.
“So, we had to spend the night in jail. After having made sure we had enough money, the Slavic warden decided to have a nearby hotel provide us with food.
In the morning, we were interrogated once again by the judge, who had to agree that we hadn’t violated any military regulations, after all, taking pictures isn’t forbidden in that location, and there wasn’t so much as a prohibition sign.
He then ordered our release.
Before he let us out, the warden gave us a broom and a rubbish bin so that we could sweep the rooms we had inhabited. He added, with a shrewd tone, that with two fliche, two 20-cent coins, we could get out of that task. Then he added, almost as if to underscore what a special favour that was: ‘Mi dover solo verzer e serar. Far questo a voi per creancia!’
We left Caporetto immediately on foot, reaching Pulfero, where we took a car to Cividale.”
The border incident. Again., read the newspaper headline the next day, announcing “Solimbergo’s Parliamentary Inquiry”.
A telegram from Rome tells us that yesterday the Honourable Solimbergo, the member of Parliament from Udine, submitted an inquiry which will be debated today in the Chamber of Deputies, on the arrest of the mountaineers from Udine detained at the Austrian border. As soon as he was notified by the Prefect of Udine, the Foreign Affairs Minister telephoned the Italian ambassador in Vienna.
Then we come to the report dated 22 March 1906, in which the event comes to its conclusion, at least in terms of articles appearing in the newspapers of the day.
The Giornale di Udine recounted the outcome of the actions taken by the Friulian member of Parliament in the capital.
Once again, the border affair. The inquiry submitted by the honourable Solimbergo on the arbitrary arrest of the excursionists from Udine in Riecco Valley.
Here’s the summary which was sent via telegraph from Rome, of the inquiry presented by the Honourable Solimbergo, the member of Parliament from Udine, and completed in the Chamber of Deputies during yesterday’s session, on the arrest of the arrest of the group of excursionists from Udine just outside Caporetto. From Scalea, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs: “…the Government rushed to call the embassy in Vienna and express its surprise about the arrest. This morning, the Ministry received news that the arrested persons had been freed as soon as the misunderstanding had been cleared up. The arrest was due to the suspicion that the Italian excursionists wanted to photograph the towns within the fortified area. I believe that the honourable Mr Solimbergo will be satisfied with this quick resolution.
Solimbergo responded: ‘I would like to thank the Undersecretary for the kind attention in responding to my inquiry and for all actions carried out by the Minister in this unfortunate border event. The Undersecretary has stated, and I already knew, that the illustrious citizens of Udine from the commendable Friulan Alpine Club, who had gone to Riecco Valley on a hiking excursion (where beautiful panoramas to photograph abound, though it is ridiculous to talk about attempts to spy on the fortifications), were released after a few hours of truly arbitrary detention. I felt compelled to bring said event to the attention of the government as, although not grave, it is regrettable for two reasons: because such detentions are an unpromising development for the Friulan Alpine Club, while (it should be noted) numerous groups belonging to Austrian clubs constantly come to our Alps without incident, and because even such an event is connected to the entire well-organized system of hostility, harassment and provocation which Austrian authorities so often ‘reward’ the Italians of the Kingdom and of the Empire with, and which certainly do not help to reaffirm good relations between the populations of the two allied states. (Hear, hear and approval).’
The other newspaper from Udine, La Patria del Friuli, also covered the event. In an interview with one of the unlucky hikers, which we know to be Camavitto, we are told that just one photograph of Mount Kern was taken at Luico and that he had to hand over his camera and all film rolls to the gendarme.