The exhibition entitled ‘La Befana del Vigile negli anni 50’ will be inaugurated on Saturday 7 December at 6.30 p.m. in the atrium of Palazzo Gambacorti. The exhibition will be open until Monday 6 January 2024.
The initiative is sponsored by the Municipality of Pisa, Pisa Municipal Police, Vespa Club d'Italia, Vespa Club Pisa, Ape Club Italia - Pisa Section, and with the contribution of Gianfaldoni Giocattoli, Hobby Centro and Scuderia Kinzica. This edition will feature a new, even richer exhibition. Also on Saturday 7 December, at 9 p.m., there will be a screening at the ‘Arsenale’ cinema of the 1960 film ‘Il Vigile’ starring Alberto Sordi.
Instead, on Monday 6 January, the ‘Re-enactment of the Befana del Vigile Urbano and the Vespa Club’ will take place. A tradition that dates back to the 1950s when the custom of going to the posts of the Traffic Wardens, located in the middle of intersections at important points in the city, to bring them gifts became widespread. This tradition had a double meaning: that of gratitude for the work carried out by the Traffic Wardens in the city and that of solidarity towards the less well-off. On the following days, a portion of the gifts received from the population was donated to charity by the Traffic Wardens.
This is the programme for Saturday 6 January:
- 9.30 a.m.: Start of concentration of participants and historic vehicles in Piazza XX Settembre - Lungarno Gambacorti with the ‘Clown Doctors’ of the Ridolina association
- 10 a.m.: Beginning of the collection of gifts and toys together with the Befana and the Officer in period uniform, to be delivered to the young patients at the ‘Stella Maris Calambrone’ and ‘AOUP Pisa Paediatric Oncohaematology’ health facility
- 11.30 a.m.: Parade of vintage vehicles through the city with escorting Municipal Police officers on motorbikes. Distribution of sweets to all children in an area of the city to be announced later.
