Fourteen Days of Holiday Joy

This is the busiest night of the year for Befana. She is flying through the sky on her broom.

There is no point in waiting up for Italy’s Good Witch, the Befana, because you will not see her.

Befana makes terrestrial appearances just once a year, on Epiphany, January 6, when she distributes sweets and presents to good children, leaving these in small stockings.

The neighborhood pastry stores sell Befana stockings too, filled with a variety of sweet goodies

Some children also get candy coal of course, which traditionally Befana brings to bad children. All children in Italy are good children. The Befana naturally knows to bring coal only to those particular children who enjoy the thrill of turning their lips a dusty grey, and their tongues black.

In Florence, Befana delivers her delights to children on Epiphany morning, and afterwards alights at the Meyer Children’s Hospital just outside of town, where she delights the children. Next, she parks her broom and consents to be driven in a cortege of historic cars that proceed slowly along the Arno, crossing the Ponte Vecchio and arriving at Piazza della Repubblica where more children anxiously await her.

Several years ago, my daughter and son were eager to meet Befana.

She was delightful, homely, generous and warm, and fit their definition of what a Befana should be. She had a strong Tuscan accent. And she arrived and departed in a magnificent blue 1933 Peugeot.

CREDIT : Time Life, 1951. On the day of the Befana, gifts pile up for the traffic warden. Via Francesco Crispi, Rome.

This cake is in the pastry store window and awaits the morning of January 6 when three meringue kings will be added.

On Befana day, I trust that you are taking the day off.

Befana is decidedly not a day to work. Children are especially feted, but it is also the day when families, for maybe the fifth occasion in two weeks, come together for one more holiday celebration. This is often at lunch. There is no traditional theme to the Befana meal — no requirement of seafood as on Christmas Eve, or tortellini in brodo as on Christmas Day, or zampone e lenticchie as on New Year’s Eve, or a generally rich extravaganza as on New Year’s Day, but a menu that is more like a very special Sunday lunch. And if the family is not entirely fed up with it by now, Befana lunch may feature the last panettone of the season.

It is hard to love Italy and be anywhere else during this holiday period.

For two weeks life revolves around food, family, friends, travel, tradition, rest and more food.

Visiting Italy during this period provides a holiday that is not just two meager days, as in America, but that goes on without hiatus between December 24 and Befana.

Every Insider’s Italy client traveling in this period is at the party ! We bring you front and center directly into the holiday traditions that are specific to every single place in Italy — bonfires, Christmas markets, concerts, pageants, vin brûlée’, presepi, bagpipes and so much more. You are at every holiday table !