This year, Unification day - March the 17th (St Patrick's to the rest of us), will be a special day-off in Italy, to mark the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. You'd think everyone would be happy right? Well, rather predictably, the Northern League (Lega Nord) is against it, along with Luis Durnwalder, the governor of the German-speaking northern region of Alto Adige, and Confindustria (the General Confederation of Italian Industry). The Education Minister, Mariastella Gelmini, the villain of my last news post 'voiced reservations', but ultimately backed the day off. The full story can be found (in English) on the ANSA news-site here.
So Italian's get an extra day off? Well, not exactly. They have scrapped the normal day off for the national unity and armed forces day, on November 4th. Guess you can't make everyone happy, right?
Interesting, not that it makes any difference to us, but last year in 2010 the Bank Holiday in Italy was on November 1st which is All Saints and we never had one on the 4th!!
ReplyDeleteAah yeah that's true. I remember that. Guess they decide everything as they go along. Seems crazy to have such a heated debate about it though.
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