Piazza Torricelli was blown up by German soldiers. Professor Ciccone did not leave the institute for the whole period of the war and kept on giving lessons (the only teacher after 8 September 1943). She faced the officers – she knew German language well since she had worked in Darmstadt - confirming with extreme bravery that she would abandon her workplace for no reason, even at the risk of being blown up with the building. In front of her resolute attitude, the German officers gave up on their intent and this prevented the building and its scientific instruments from being destroyed. Both for her courageous permanence in the institute and for the courage shown against the Germans, Mariannina Ciccone was praised by the Faculty Council, and by the dean Remo De Fazi and Luigi Russo, a famous Professor of Italian studies that became dean immediately after liberation. In the draft of a letter sent to the Ministry of Education on 7 June 1946, Dean Luigi Russo said: "I can’t help but report the merit gained by professor Ciccone during the period of the German siege concerning the preservation of scientific materials and for being always vigilant in her Institute, even when keeping safe from danger would have meant running away from it". After the War On 1 November 1953 she was relocated to the department of Physics-Chemistry to continue her research on infrared rays spectroscopy. It is plausible that her relocation was the result of precise administrative choices aiming to hire other teachers in the Physics Institute. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that she had to face organizational problems in the new headquarters: none of the instruments required by Mariannina Ciccone for her job was available so she was asked to leave her activity. She resigned on 12 October 1954 but, even if retired, she kept on teaching as an external lecturer, in particular as a physics teacher at the Science and Spectroscopy, Experimental Physics, Terrestrial Physics and Atomic Physics Faculty. At the end of the academic years 1961-62, she was officially relieved of duty so she went back to Noto where she died on 29 March 1965. Legacy Although she was born in the 19th century in a city in the south, Noto, she decided to study and teach physics in Pisa, a very important international city. She tested new research methods modifying experimental equipment and preparing