Re-enactment of the Befana of the Traffic Police in Pisa
This morning, Thursday 6 January, the traditional Pisan appointment with the ‘Re-enactment of the Befana of the traffic warden‘. An event that has been held in Pisa since the 1950s and which this year went on stage, albeit in a reduced form due to the ongoing Covid emergency. The public form, which provided for the concentration in Piazza XX Settembre and the collection of gifts, the parade, was in fact canceled. All replaced by the deposition of the gifts gathered at the foot of thetraffic policeman dummy ‘, set up in the atrium of Gambacorti Palace on the occasion of the dedicated exhibition exhibition. To the initiative, organized by Municipality of Pisa together with the association Vespa Club Pisa 1949, also attended the Scuderia Kinzica and the Ridolina association. “They are about an explains – explains Paolo Lazzerini, president of the Vespa Club Pisa 1949 – the gifts collected and which will be delivered in the next few years days. The goal – he continues – is to give children a smile, bringing the gifts on a Vespa, motorbike or vintage car. “A goal projected by the mayor of Pisa himself, Michele Conti, presents the initiative together with Alberto Messerini, Commander of the Municipal Police, and alderman of the Municipal Police Giovanna Bonanno, who recalled how the event is also a way to thank the commitment of the local police. This tradition was born in fact when in the fifties the custom of bringing gifts to the traffic police spread. At the base a double meaning: that of gratitude for the work done in the city and that of the solidarity towards the less well-off people, given that during the days a part of the gifts received by the consumed population was donated to charity by the traffic police. The tradition has remained until today, directing attention only to the message of solidarity. All the gifts received are in fact devoted by the municipal police to help the less fortunate, with particular attention to children hospitalized.