An April After

A pro-Palestinian activist looks on as she participates in the celebrations of the 79th Anniversary of Italy’s Liberation Day from nazism and fascism, in Rome, April 25, 2024. Photo: Yara Nardi/Reuters.

A Special Day

Gildo Bugni, a partisan named Arno, though being 93 years old, has no memory of “such a difficult” April 25, but he does not venture a comparison between the Resistance to fascism and nazism and the fight agaimst COVID-19, if nothing else because “A vaccine against fascism has never been found. We must not forget that”, he told Francesco Battistini of Corriere della Sera. And today, like then, the worst demagogy “is in the air”. But now, he says, “We’re gonna go out again. Free, free at last. And thanks to all those who fought for freedom”.

Hubble’s Cosmic Reef. Photo credit: NASA/ESA/STScI.

Seventy-fifth Anniversary

This year, the 75th Anniversary of the Resistance (Italy’s Liberation Day), which falls on Saturday, April 25, 2020, will be celebrated under an unprecedented spotlight: as indeed, in consequence of the state of emergency declared on January 31, 2020, some of people’s civil rights and freedoms have been temporarily suspended — “Nothing is more permanent than the temporary” — and the first hour’s “safer-at-home” advice was turned into an Armageddon “stay-at-home” order. And yet, it is sad how soon a deserted city may become a ruin; and how soon life may be dissolved by the fear of dying. But, alas, such a paradox will barely do justice to all those who gave their lives for freedom — for they believed freedom was worth dying for. Photo: Alamy.

White Broom

It’s Epiphany Eve, the last day of Christmas holidays. Tonight a flying Befana on her broom will come to you to fill your socks with candies and gifts or lumps of coal, depending whether you study dance at Associazione Culturale “Il Delta della Luna” or not!

Vapour Trails

Rome, Italy: The Italian air force’s aerobatic demonstration team, the Frecce Tricolori, leave colourful vapour trails as they fly over the Altare della Patria monument on Republic Day. Photo: Massimo Percossi/EPA.