Festa della Donna

This Sunday, March 8th, was Festa della Donna, or Women's Day. Before Sunday, I used to think this was an annual holiday only for women in Italy. After reading this explanation of International Women's Day, I learned that it is indeed celebrated all over the world. Which led me to wonder why this day is not celebrated in the U.S? Yes, we have Mother's Day, but so does Italy and a lot of other countries, in addition to Women's Day. Interestingly enough, International Women's Day has been observed since the early 1900's! Here in Florence, women of all ages go out with their friends and celebrate. These flowers (mimose) are the traditional flowers for Women's Day in Italy and can be found everywhere from restaurants to supermarkets to street vendors.

Our group went out to eat for pizza on Sunday. We were a group of eleven girls- ten Americans and one Italian. We even had a baby on board to pass around! There was plenty of "ooh-ing" and "ahh-ing" over this little one.

This is only one half of our table. (I didn't get any good shots of the other side). Happy Women's Day!