Rossana Banti fought to free Italy with laughter as well as weapons

SHE LOVED that coat. It was the only one she had, made of thick smooth Casentino cloth, which some said was the best in Italy. Second, it was bright vermilion, as red as could be, bound to get her noticed and appreciated as she walked down the street. Red was her colour in all kinds of ways. The short form of Rossana was “Rossa”, so that was her name among her friends. And her politics were red too, fiercely anti-fascist and of the left. Her approach wasn’t intellectual, since she preferred actual parties to the intense philosophical debates some of her friends had. But then she was only a schoolgirl. She knew quite enough to have joined a group of young Communist Partisans in Rome to undermine, and fight if they could, the German occupation and the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. All of them agreed it was the right thing and the only thing to do. Justice, solidarity, freedom! And joy.