Happy Liberation Day Italy! After 20 years of fascist dictatorship under Benito Mussolini and 5 years of war, Italy became a democratic republic in 1946. Today, April 25, Italy celebrates La Festa della Liberazione, or Liberation Day, in order to pay tribute to the freedoms Italians couldn’t enjoy when it was a monarchy and under the fascist regime prior to 1945. It is also a day to recognize those who lost their lives fighting to free their country.

(Painting by Renato Guttuso, 1981, Ragazza)