My understanding is that most Alpini soldiers eventually surrendered to the Germans. Yet a small group went south and formed a new brigade and fought for the Allies. How can I determine which regiment Uncle Vito fought with? There is a number 2 on the front of the hat. Does that signify Tridentina?
All we know about him is that he was in what he called the "ski patrol", and that he was held in Russia for a while. There are what i believe to be Nazi pins on the hat; but I'm not sure if the the fact that they are still there signifies that he remained loyal to the Nazis, or if he simply never removed them. He eventually immigrated to Canada, and embraced his new country completely, denouncing the Nazis.
Here is an album of the hat, and a very brief description of him (in Italian) from a book, which we also inherited.
Uncle Vito's Alpini hat Uncle Vito's Alpini hat https://imgur.com/a/aNWIk
Brief description https://imgur.com/uRNzDtZ
I can see no 'nazi pins' in the pictures you posted. I will try to explain the meaning of the various items.
First picture shows the front of the hat. An eagle - which is the symbol of the Alpini corp. Under the eagle you have the identifiers of the specialty and to some extent of the rank.
Unfortunately the picture does not show the full insignia: below the number you should be able to see a pair of rifles (infantry) or a pair of cannons (artillery) - this is relevant as I will explain soon.
The number appears to have been replaced; it marks the regiment, not the division - if I am not mistaken. Provided that the replacement is the same number as the original; this would put Uncle Vito in the Alpini Corp of the 8th Army; in the 2nd regiment. Now, the second Regiment of the Tridentina was an Artillery regiment; the second Regiment of the Cuneense was an Infantry Regiment. It must be nothed though that he is listed as complement - if I understand correctly - and that could change things a bit, given that there was a 2nd Complement Regiment in the Cuneense.
I therefore checked the list of the soldiers in the Cuneense and I could not find him. I have only a list of decorated soldiers in the Tridentina and he is not there either. My best guess would be Artillery in the Tridentina.
More information could come from the feather. It should be fixed to a small disc - or something similar - wooden or metallic, on the left side. Can you tell the color of the disk? I can't see it from the pictures.
Now, to explain all the pins; they are not military insignia. Especially for veteran Alpini it is not uncommon to pin to their hat some celebrative pins from meetings or festivals, together with their proper insignia. It appears to me that Uncle Vito was active to some extent within the Alpini Veterans after WW2.
The first pin in your pictures simply reads: Sci Club Alpini d'Italia or Ski Club, Alpini of Italy. The one right below shows the lily (of Florence) with the hat. It is a celebrative medal from the Florence national convention of 1975.
The next picture shows a medal for the 50th anniversary of the National Alpini Association of Monte Suello (Salò). This is the name of a battallion created during WW1 in 1915 and it is reasonable to assume that the medal dates therefore 1965.
The next picture shows a pin form the Alpini section of Biella - which is a town in the north of Piemonte, right at the feet of the highest mountains in Europe. It also shows a celebrative post ww2 pin of the Cuneense Division.
This would put your Uncle in that division but, as I said, it is possible that he was simply collecting or exchanging pins with other Alpini veterans.
Then we have another medal from the Florence National Meeting of 1975.
As far as the book is concerned, it is a book listing veterans of the ARMIR and CSIR by another veteran, Egidio Franzini, who also wrote other books on his experience in WW2.
Unfortunately, without more data it is not possible to tell you more.
Provided that you know where Uncle Vito was born and where he was drafted, you can ask for informations from the italian government and the italian army. They shoud have his entire service record. But this is available only to relatives.
Here there are some informations; it is the site of the veterans of the Russian expedition.
And here the contact page for the Italian Army.
I would also consider trying to contact the local administration of the place he lived in after the war. They may provide advice. In any case, these informations should be available.
Biella is a city, it means he would be in that city section of the corp, which i think would be the second one.
The nazi-alpini badge: i don't know, orders are orders. May it be he didn't want to forget the truth.
The expedition to Russia was terrible. An Alpine division put to defend the Don river against tanks. Though they succeded and needed to move when the axis line failed around them, with Russians surrounding them. Almost everyone died there, around 120k men, either for freezing or for russian bullets. Many were taken prisoners too, ended in the gulags in Siberia, your granpa was very lucky to return.
He was in the Tridentina, for sure.
"Only about one third of the Tridentina division (4250 survivors of 15,000 troops deployed) and one tenth of the Julia (1,200/15,000) were able to survive this odyssey. The Cuneense division was annihilated."
Bartolini Giovanni Vito, son of Daniele (Bartolini)
Caporal, 2nd complement (?)/ ploton commander
The book talks of that expedition and your grandfather is cited in those pages