This weekend in a quiet suburb of Milan the streets will be filled with men, women and children on bicycles. They will be riding to remember one woman, Gina Bianshi Galleotti, codenamed Lia, who lost her life on the day before Italy was finally liberated from German occupation. The cyclists will also be remembering the many other women from all over Italy who risked their lives in the vicious civil war that raged through the country after the fall of Mussolini in 1943. The women partisans will also be remembered in a play.
Lara Corner travelled to the suburb of Niguarda in Milan where she spoke to historian Ketty Carraffa and the partisan Stellina Vecchio, as well as the actress Rossana Mola. |
