Bernabo was awarded the gold medal for civil merit for saving her young neighbours during the August 1944 massacre of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, in Tuscany, in which 560 people died.

Then aged 16, Bernabo had been led together with fellow villagers into an outhouse and targeted by German machine gun fire.

Bernabo was wounded, according to the citation.

But she managed to escape with Mario, five, and 10-year-olds Mauro and Lina, from the building as it was set on fire.

The trio she saved were present to see Bernabo receive the valour award at a ceremony in the central city of Lucca in 2005.

Officials at the time hailed her bravery as an example of many Italians' "silent resistance" to Nazi occupation during the latter part of World War II.

"Throughout her life she was an ambassador of peace, reminding the young people she encountered of the Nazi-Fascist massacre of Sant'Anna di Stazzema," the office of the mayor of Stazzema, Maurizio Verona, told AFP in an email.

"Milena remembered with the hope that those who listened would understand that Fascism and Nazism were absolute evils of the last century and that the institutions and their representatives would work to build a better future."

Two other women from Sant'Anna were awarded the same honour -- Cesira Pardini, who died in 2022, and Genny Bibolotti Marsili, who died the day of the massacre.

They were all "heroines", mayor Verona told the ANSA news agency, hailing Bernabo's strength and determination to keep the memory of what happened alive.