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ITALIAN TRADITIONS

Five things about Italy’s Republic Day you need to know

Friday June 2nd is the Festa della Repubblica or Republic Day in Italy. But what exactly is the country celebrating and how?

Five things about Italy's Republic Day you need to know
Italy marks Republic Day on June 2nd. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

We get a day off in Italy on June 2nd, as Republic Day, or the Festa della Repubblica, is a public holiday.

As you can probably guess from the name, this is date Italy commemorates the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of the Italian Republic we have today.

Here are a few curious facts you may or may not already know about the events we’re marking this week.

It all started in 1946

June 2nd, 1946, was the day Italians voted to abolish the monarchy, and the Republic of Italy was born; hence Republic Day.

After an 85-year monarchy, which had for the most part been very popular with the people, a referendum resulted in 12,717,923 votes ‘for’ (54 percent) and 10,719,284 votes ‘against’ (45 percent).

Following the result, all male members and future heirs of the ruling House of Savoy were deposed and exiled, most ending up in Switzerland.

Italy’s final king only ruled for one month

The House of Savoy had ruled since Italy’s Unification in 1861, but its final monarch, Umberto II (or Umberto Nicola Tommaso Giovanni Maria di Savoia, in full), only got to be king for a month, earning him the nickname ‘Re di Maggio’ or ‘the May King’ – slightly unfair since he actually ruled from May 9th to June 12th.

Umberto had actually been acting as head of state since 1944; after Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime – to which the monarchy had been closely allied – collapsed, Italy’s wartime King Victor Emmanuel III transferred his powers to his only son in the hope it would give the monarchy a PR boost.

Obviously, it didn’t work.

Italy will never have another monarchy

For one thing, the constitution now forbids a monarchy, and for another, the House of Savoy family formally renounced their claim to the throne as one of the conditions for the right to return from exile, in 2002.

Umberto refused the right to return to his homeland, dying in Geneva in 1983.

So what happened to the others? Prince Victor Emmanuel, his wife, and son returned to Italy in 2003 after former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party overturned their exile.

But they weren’t exactly welcomed home with open arms – not least because Victor Emmanuel – descendant of King Victor Emmanuel III – had not long before defended Mussolini’s racial laws as “not all that bad”.

READ ALSO: Ditching the monarchy or a day at the beach: What exactly is Italy celebrating on Republic Day?

There were numerous protests and the mayor of Naples refused a €15,000 donation from the family to a local hospice.

More recently, in 2021, the wartime King’s great-grandson Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy apologised to the country’s Jewish community for his ancestor’s role in dictator Mussolini’s racial laws and the Holocaust.

Republic Day changed dates for 24 years

In 1977, Italy’s large number of public holidays were thought to be having a negative impact on the already struggling economy. So to avoid affecting business, Republic Day was moved to the first Sunday in June. It was only changed back to June 2nd in 2001.

The first Sunday of June had a long history as Italy’s national holiday; before Italy became a Republic, this holiday was known as the Feast of the Albertine Statute – the constitution of 1848, which was seen as the foundation of the Kingdom of Italy.

There’s a lot going on to celebrate

Though things have been quieter in recent years with Covid lockdown measures in place, celebrations will back in full swing for 2023.

Rome hosts a huge huge military parade through the historic centre, with smaller, similar events in many other cities and towns throughout the country.

Elsewhere in the capital, the presidential palace opens its gardens to the public free of charge.


Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

But perhaps the highlight is the flyover by Frecce Tricolori, Italy’s Air Force. The planes will fly over the Altare della Patria monument in Piazza Venezia, leaving a trail of green, white and red smoke.

If you’re not interested in joining in the Republic Day celebrations, be aware that there will be road closures in Rome as the parade takes place, and elsewhere, public transport is unlikely to be running as normal (check for travel updates before travelling). Some tourist sites will also be closed.

To find out more about how Italy is marking the day, check the official website (in Italian).

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ITALIAN HISTORY

Five pre-Roman sites to visit in Italy

From the mountains of Lombardy to the shores of Sicily, there are traces of pre-Roman civilisations scattered across Italy - if you know where to look.

Five pre-Roman sites to visit in Italy

The Romans may be Italy’s best-known ancient civilisation, but with Rome tracing its foundations back to 753 BC, they were far from the first to get here.

From the Etruscans to the Greeks, a suprising number of early human societies left their mark on the Italian peninsula, with temples, fortifications, theatres and graveyards.

Here are five historic sites you can visit in Italy that pre-date the Romans.

Etruscan necropoli of Cerveteri and Tarquinia

The Etruscan civilisation, with its heartlands in modern-day Lazio, Tuscany and Umbria, at one time dominated Italy until it was wiped out in the Roman-Etruscan wars in the 4th century BC.

These days not much remains of the Etruscans beyond earthenware and sarcophagi, but we do have some impressive necropolises or ‘cities of the dead’ that served as graveyards.

READ ALSO: Four civilizations in Italy that pre-date the Roman Empire

One of the best preserved is in Tarquinia, where not far outside the medieval city walls you’ll find a complex with hundreds of painted tombs depicting ancient life.

Another is the Necropoli della Banditaccia in nearby Cerveteri, a sprawling cemetery containing thousands of large domed tombs in a city-like plan designed to mimic an actual living city.

A 7th century painted Etruscan tomb discovered outside Rome in June 2006. Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP.

Matera’s Neolithic caves

Used as a filming location for Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew or The Passion of the Christ thanks to its strong resemblance to ancient Jerusalem, Matera in southern Italy is believed to be Europe’s oldest continually-habited settlement.

Outside of the cave dwellings carved into the rock which form the residences and hotels you’ll find in the old town’s Sassi districts today, the city is surrounded by caves that have been dated as far back as 7000 BC, to the Neolithic and even the Paleolothic eras.

You can see traces of prehistoric settlements and and Neolithic graveyards and villages in the Murgia Materana regional park surrounding the city.

Caves dating back to the Neolithic area surround the ancient city of Matera. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP.

Sardinia’s nuraghi

Sardinia’s Nuragic civilisation lasted from around 1,800 BC in the Bronze Age to Roman invasion and colonisation in around the first century BC, but today few traces of it remain beyond the stone structures – nuraghes or nuraghi in Italian – from which it takes its name.

READ ALSO: Five surprising facts you didn’t know about Rome

Around 7,000 nuraghi, truncated cone-like edifices made from stacked stones and boulders, dot the island’s landscape. Historians debate their function: they might have served as fortresses, residences, temples, astronomical observatories, or a combination of any of these.

The Su Nuraxi di Barumini nuraghe complex in the south of the island is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site, and is considered one of the best examples of the architecture.

An aerial view of Nuraghe Arrabiu, one of the largest nuraghi on Sardinia. Photo by Joran Quinten on Unsplash

Valcamonica’s pre-historic stone carvings

In Italy’s mountainous northern Lombardy region you can find one of the world’s largest collections of petroglyphs, or rock carvings, spanning eight millennia and dating as far back as the Epipaleolithic era, around 10,000 years ago.

The 300,000-odd carvings, found in multiple locations across the 90km-long valley, were Italy’s first recognised World Heritage site, coming under UNESCO protection in 1979.

Today, there are eight archeological parks you can visit to see the engravings in person, with the 140 rocks in the Naquane National Park of Rock Engravings considered some of the best preserved.

A British Museum employee dusts a carved stone dated 2,500 BC, from Capo di Ponte, Valcamonica, for a 2022 exhibition. Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP.

Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples

From architecture to military strategy, the Romans were heavily influenced by the Greeks – which is no surprise considering that large parts of southern Italy were once part of ancient Greece.

‘Magna Grecia’, ‘Great[er] Greece’ as the Romans called it, started being settled by the Greeks from around the eighth century BC, and at its height stretched across modern-day Sicily, Calabria, Puglia, Campania and Basilicata.

READ ALSO: Did you know…? These parts of Italy were once part of ancient Greece

Scattered across southern Italy are the remains of Greek settlements, including soaring temples and ancient theatres.

One of the most renowned and impressive examples of these is the Sicilian city of Agrigento’s ‘Valley of Temples’, where you’ll find seven temples within just a few miles of each other.

The Greek Temple of Concordia in Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples was built in the 5th century BC. Photo by ludovic MARIN / AFP.

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