June 1946

This shot, that I took while I was riding my MTB in the valley run by river Olona, has been waiting so long in my hard disk that I nearly forgot I had taken it. I spotted this (IMHO) finely decorated concrete wall in Marnate, at the entrance of a WWII bunker (click here to read some more). I recall that I stopped, took the picture and thought "this could be fine for June 2".

Yesterday was the so called Republic Day (Festa della Repubblica), the main Italian National Holiday. Beside a military parade made in Rome and few short local celebrations made early in the morning (not to disturb the rest of the people) by civilian and military authorities together with the survival of those who lived those days between 1940 and 1946, nothing else was done to recall why we had that day off. If I asked my kids they would have answered "boh!" ("I don't know").

It must have been a well studied strategy combining the Republic Day break, the very first opportunity to reach for the seaside, with the local administration polls. Numbers of voters have been at historical low.
I wonder why those authorities still meet in front of a memorial stone.