Abstract

The paper analyses the events that happened to the Club Alpino Italiano between the fall of Mussolini’s government (25th July 1943) and the Liberation (25th April 1945). The institutional transitions, the changes on the presidency, the complex management of the relationship between the sections of Northern, Central and Southern Italy, the support given by the members of Cai to the Resistance and the logistic and strategic role of numerous alpine shelters - many of which destroyed by Nazi-Fascist reprisals - will be examined. Moreover, the essay considers the debate involving members and executives of Cai and showing a fracture between who supported a marked transformation of the association with its complete adhesion to democracy and who stayed in continuity with the previous experience of alignment and compromise with Fascism.