Yesterday I
went to see the visit of the Italian President to Reggio Emilia. He was here to
celebrate the 220th anniversary of the invention of the Italian Flag. I was not
interested in the tired ritual of the official visit, but I wanted to see a
huge 1700-metre-long flag that was hauled through town.
I caught
the preparations for the flag quite by accident as they were unfurling it just
outside the bar where I have breakfast. I took a few shots on the iPhone.
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations. |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
The
disruption in town was tremendous with crowd barriers dividing the city in two
along with a massive police presence. One really got the feeling of the
isolation of the establishment from the unwashed masses behind the barriers.
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
I managed
to get a good position to see the procession of our local worthies before the agitation
of the guys in dark shades left us in no doubt that the top dogs were arriving.
I also narrowly avoided getting interviewed by the local TV who to their rhetorical
questions expected a rhetorical patriotic response to generate a bit of “fake
news”.
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| President Mattarella, Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
Seeing one
of these visits is quite interesting and instructive to see the stage
management of these events and the distorted vision I got from reading the
local newspaper this morning.
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
Then the
flag arrived down the Via Emilia, our high street. It was quite an impressive
sight. The road from start to finish was green white and red. Quite an
impressive sight, almost impossible to describe in a photograph.
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
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| Reggio Emilia 7th January flag day celebrations |
My wife and
a friend who I met for an aperitive afterwards were concerned that I might be
suffering from a nasty dose of patriotism.
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