March 17th, more commonly known as St. Patrick's Day and adamantly referred to personally as my niece Miriam's birthday. However, in Italy, the celebration, parades, marching bands and other forms of general merry making is not for either of these momentous occasions, but for another non related yet equally important event. Unification Day.
Today, on March 17th, while my beautiful niece is blowing out her first candle and Irish people everywhere are raising their glasses, all of Italy breaks out in lavish celebration for the 150th year reign of them being a unified country. In the year 1861, (cough, 150 years ago) amid other general political and military chaos of the 19th century that was Europe, the Kingdom of Italy was formed, no longer under the rule of either the French or Austrian. I say most because two of the states were still under foreign control: Rome was still under control of Napoleon III and Venetia was still under Austrian rule. Prussia gave Italy Venetia for their help in their war against Austria, and French troops were pulled from Rome so Italy just marched in and reclaimed it unopposed. All except the Papal State, obviously.
Though there is a whole of other components to this politically charged history, like most historical stories, today is the celebration of Italy being a whole. Though each region has kept their own dialectic and the Italian language only became spread over all of Italy and become the common language everyone spoke when television was only broadcast in Italian. Yesterday night was the pregame to general festivities. Store shops decorated with white, green and red accents. Lights shown on buildings in the same color palate. Flags hang from windows and various other decorations zigzagged above in the city streets. A vicious soccer game was played in traditional costumes (meaning doublets and such), and fireworks were set off from Piazza Signora. Though rain is still joining the party in intermittent waves, the streets were filled and are still. So I will have to announce an official protraction of a previous statement that said there was no traffic in Italy. Today, there is.
Tonight I will hang out with my remaining roommates before we depart on all of our adventures for spring break, celebrating Unification, Saint Patrick's Day, the completion of midterms (one of which I am presently awaiting critique for), my niece's birthday,and life in general.
Until Next Time!
Ciao!
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