November 9th – Florence Armed Forces Day

David Cenciotti

As I explained in a previous post (November 4th 2008 – 90th Anniversary of the end of WWI) between Nov 4 and Nov 9, the major Italian towns hosted the celebrations of the Armed Forces Day and the 90th anniversary of the end of WWI. Matteo Marianeschi went to Florence and took the following pictures of the static and air display conducted there on Nov 9.

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a freelance journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Matteo Marianeschi says:

November 20, 2008 at 2:58 AM

First of all, thanks David for sharing my pictures.
An intresting story is linked with the name “QUOTA” written on the port and starboard side of the medium wheeled tank “Centauro”.
The tank belongs to the glorious Italian Army Regiment “Savoia Cavalleria” (Savoia’s cavalry) whose history is of course strictly linked with horses.
The name QUOTA belonged to one of the most famous horses of the Regiment and today – as you can see from the pictures – is the own name of the tank.
All the Regiment’s men are proud of this piece of history.

The 6×6 APC “Puma” belonged to the Regiment too but is not considered the main “mount” oh the group and soo it doesn’t wear nor markings neither names since today.