The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips By Michael Morpurgo

The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips is a very particular historical novel set during the second world war in Slapton. It’s a story about Adolphus Tips, a cat that survives the war.
It’s 1943 and it’s wartime. However, life is pretty normal : a few fathers are away fighting and there are a few evacuees still in school, but that's about it. However, when the Americans arrive everything changes…His owner Lily , as well as many other people, is sent away from her house so that the Yanks can practice for the D-day landings.
Adolphus has no clue of what is going on, and he gets in trouble : he disappears!!! Lily is desperate, she’s scared that Adolphus might be killed or injured … So , she decides to become friends with some American soldiers who promise to help her find Adolphus Tips. However, the soldiers are always busy and she knows Adolphus can’t survive for long alone, with bombs flying everywhere. She then decides to risk her own life and cross the the wire in the danger zone to look for her adored cat…
Now, 60 years later, Michael is reading his Grandmother’s diary ( Lily) and he is discovering many things about the war and about “the amazing story if Adolphus tips”. He understands Adolphus was adventurous and brave, and he understands that he is very important because he still affecting his family’s lives after so many years.

Geographical Entry on Trieste - The Grotta Gigante

The Grotta Gigante is a very famous and big cave in Trieste (its central cavern is 107m high, 65m wide and 160m long). It is located in Borgo Grotta Gigante, only 15 km away from Trieste’s city center, and it is the biggest cave in the world open to tourists ( in 1995 it was recorded in the Guinness World Records book because of this). It can be easily reached both by car and by bus, and it is absolutely magnificent. Tourists can have a look at the spectacular and charming underground world. Some of the cave’s very particular features are it’s temperature, which is constant all year long, and it’s beautiful and enormous stalactites and stalagmites. But now, lets talk about the cave’s history… The cave was first explored by Antonio Federico Lindner in 1840. In 1897 it mapped by Andrea Perko, and in 1905 it was properly equipped for guided tours . Then, in 1908, it was finally inaugurated. However, tourism really began in 1957 when electricity was installed. Tours around the cave became “easier” and nicer because with electricity details that couldn’t be seen before, could be observed. Now, the cave is lighted in a very original and pretty way and it is full of steps so it can be explored easily and without to much fatigue. In conclusion , the Grotta Gigante is a unique cave that has been visited constantly ever since 1957, in every season of the year, by almost every tourist that comes to Trieste.