«We imagined a boy in his early twenties catapulted to the very distant Sardinia from his home town, Campagnatico, in the province of Grosseto . We imagined the suffering and homesickness. We imagined a boy resting under the oak trees intent on writing or just thinking about his family or his girlfriend who was left alone too soon, perhaps lying about the fact that she was fine. We imagined a boy dealing with a war that perhaps not even he understood or wanted . We identified with our children who we now cuddle in our warm and safe homes until well into their twenties. We thought about his future after the loss of the object. We don't know if he returned home or not. Now we are looking for relatives so that the registration plate can have the place it most deserves and deserves ."

Thus begins the post on Facebook by Gianfranco Atza , a citizen of Iglesias with a particular hobby: traveling around Sardinia, together with his friend Giuseppe, with the metal detector .

There are many objects that he has found (and returned to their rightful owners) over the years during his research, from wedding rings to sets of keys.

Now, during a "tour" in the Bellicai forest, his metal detector allowed him to find the dog tag of a Tuscan soldier stationed on the island in the Second World War. And from his social profile he immediately launched an appeal to try to find the soldier's relatives and return the heirloom to them .

The soldier's name, explains Atza, is Angiolino Pepi , presumably born in 1919, son of Armido and Assunta Pisani.

Thanks to the social media buzz, the "word" of the discovery spread quickly, also reaching Tuscany, on Facebook groups and even on the pages of some local news sites.

The hope, obviously, is to find the soldier's heirs and give them the tag, a precious object with great sentimental value, to be kept among family memories.