Today is a holiday in Italy, marking the 12th day of Christmas and the day the wise men arrived to see the Christ child in Bethlehem.

In Italy, children arise this morning to find that La Befana has either left them some candies or a lump of coal. Usually, in Florence, the big parade takes place with the actors dressed in Renaissance costumes. But, with Covid ravaging the western world, there is no parade today and we are in Zona Rossa, the red zone. We can’t leave our homes without a good reason and must carry a document stating all the particulars of why we are out.

What a year. And it’s only 6 days old.

I hope you enjoy this remarkable video as much as I do!

Here is a start!

https://www.bbcstudios.com/news/the-bbc-and-amazon-prime-video-release-first-look-imagery-for-emily-mortimer-s-the-pursuit-of-love/

I don’t see enough of this kind of encouragement for young girls and women in Italy, but occasionally I do. This wonderful poster was sited in the heart of Florence, on a wall. It commemorates Rossana Rossanda, see below, and, I hope inspires young girls to be like her.

Rossanda (1924 – 2020) died in September of this year. She was an Italian communist politician, journalist, and feminist.

Rossanda was born in Pula, then part of Italy, she studied in Milan and was a student of philosopher Antonio Banfi. At a very young age, she took part in the Italian resistance and, following the end of World War II, she joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI). After a short period, secretary Palmiro Togliatti named her responsible for culture in the party. She was elected for the first time to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1963.

In 1968 she published a small essay, entitled L’anno degli studenti (The Year of the students), in which she declared her support for the youth movement. Rossanda was part of a minority inside the PCI that was against the Soviet Union, and, together with Luigi Pintor, Valentino Parlato, and Lucio Magri founded the party and newspaper il manifesto. This caused her expulsion from the Communist Party after its XII National Congress held in Bologna.

In the 1972 elections, Il Manifesto obtained only 0.8% of the votes. It therefore merged with the Proletarian Unity Party, forming the Proletarian Unity Party for Communism. She later abandoned party politics but kept her role as director of il manifesto.

If you haven’t yet seen this, do yourself a favor and watch it. It gave me chills.