by Paul Matheson

Here is an Italian song that captures the emotion of the times we are living through. ‘Bella Ciao’ is a song that many of us remember from the terrible months of March and April 2020 when the global pandemic crisis had overwhelmed Northern Italy, and we heard people across Italy singing ‘Bella Ciao’ from their street balconies, to express their solidarity. The words they were singing are the well-known modern words to ‘Bella Ciao’, with lyrics that were composed between 1943 and 1945 to turn it into the famous partisan song of resistance to the Italian fascist and Nazi German regimes.

Questa mattina, mi son svegliata (Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao!) …..