iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Since it seems there'd be no problem.........here they are!! 🥹♥️ I took these one month after the surgery, and it's honestly incredible how well the wounds are healing! I can't stop peaking at them from time to time, I'm so incredibly happy!!

front picture of a white person showing their top surgery scars. The scars are already very thin and clean, a little more pinkish than the surrounding skin. The person is standing in front of a white door and has a sacred heart tattooed on their chest

The same person showing the scars from a slightly different angle, as they are now laying on their bed amidst green pillows

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Happy #25Aprile - the day of Liberation from nazi-fascism! A suggestion on how to celebrate in three different languages 😘🌹

A collage of the first line from my novella, Let The Mountains Be My Grave, in English, Italian and Spanish. It reads:
"Every day is a good day to kill Nazis, I always say."
"Ogni giorno è buono per ammazzare nazisti"
"Todo dìa es bueno para matar nazis, como digo siempre."

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

At this point, though, other masks appear - the angels guarding the resurrected Christ defeat the devils, so that the Son can meet his Mother. Good triumphs over Evil as Christ has triumphed over Death 3/?

The devils and death kneel in front of the statue of the resurrected Christ while angels, dressed in military garb, stand watch

Aerial view of the two statues of christ and mary (dressed in mourning) as they finally meet in a crowded square

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Happy Easter from the "easter devils" in Prizzi, Sicily 😈 During this peculiar easter tradition, two people dressed ad devils (in red) and one dressed as Death (in yellow) dance around town making pranks and causing mischief...until statues of Jesus and Mary are paraded in the streets 1/?

Two people wearing bright red ans grotesque horned masks pause with a person dressed in yellow wearing a crude skull-like mask and holding an arrow. Behind them is the outline of a small town with stone houses

The same three people as in the first picture make grotesque dances in the middle of an alley

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

When Easter comes, the dolls are set aflame, signalling the end of Lent and the purification of the penitents' souls. In certain towns, this is also accompanied by the parading of a statue of Christ after his resurrection.

a quarantana doll engulfed by smoke as she is set aflame

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

The Quarantana, identified as the "wife of Carnevale", is a doll representing an old woman dressed in black, holding a spindle and an orange pierced by seven chicken feathers. These dolls hung over the streets starting from Shrove Tuesday all the way to Easter.

close up to a quarantana this one is a rag doll wearing an apron and veil, all black, and three gold pendants. She has an orange in front of her, pierced by seven brown feathers. She's hanging from a chord with dried olive leaves

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

We're well into Lent, the 40-days period of (supposed) penance and meditation preceding Easter. There are many Lent traditions in Italy, but the most bizarre-and fascinating-is that of the Quarantane,"invading" the streets of many Apulian towns. A short 🧵 about them!

a doll portraying an old woman dressed in black hanging over an alley, she's holding an orange pierced by chicken feathers

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

I've officially started drafting my cozy YA project! To celebrate, let me share some of the pics I took in Locorotondo and Martina Franca, two beautiful Apulian towns that heavily inspired the setting! 🙌

Picture of an alley framed by white buildings and cream-colored pavement, bright pink flowers in the foreground

A shrine with various icons of the mother mary, jesus and the saints, with white flowers in the foreground

An alley with similar white houses and cream colored pavement, paper decorations are strung between the buildings and appear against a blue sky

A wooden door framed by cream colored stone carved into columns and garlands, surmounted by an arch through which you can see the blue skyp and a vase of prickly pears

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

But the survivors gave us precious testimonies of their time in the Resistance - a memory that we should hold dear. Gifting mimosa flowers to women today has become a mindless gesture, but it shouldn't be. We should remember what those flowers mean. And never stop fighting against oppression.

three women, holding rifles, strolling sure-footed in a newly-liberated Italian town

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

The staffette moved by bycicle or on foot, travelling for many miles. They were unarmed, alone, trying to travel undetected. The stigma that view women harmless at the time helped, but even so, many fell to the nazis and fascists and were victims of horrible violence.

black and white picture of a woman on a bike, flanked by two nazi soldiers who are likely interrogating her

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

The staffette, mostly women but also young boys, were pivotal for the Resistance. They were tasked with the dangerous but fundamental job of delivering messages and exchanging information between the various brigades, thus ensuring their coordination.

a dark haired woman with a long black skirt, resting on a bycicle on a hilltop. A small town in the distance.

another black and white picture of a woman, dressed in summer clothes, resting on her bycicle next to a drywall - an olive tree in the distance

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Happy #IWD! In Italy, we gift mimosa flowers to women today. But why? The flower was chosen as a symbol by antifascist Rita Montagnana and Teresa Mattei, because it was the same flower partisan fighters gifted to the "staffette" - the women who delivered messages for the Resistance. A 🧵 about them!

a black and white picture of a woman partisan on the mountains, smiling at the camera, holding a rifle.

photo centered on two hands, likely from and elder woman, holding a bundle of yellow mimosa flowers

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

E ci ho guardato ma non ho foto gender salvate :(( eccetto questa che sono proprio io

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Masks symbolizing chaos are a constant in Carnevale celebrations around Italy, as well as the "good" masks fighting them. Other examples are L'Urs of the Carnevale in Satriano (Basilicata), or s’Urzu from the Carnevale in Austis (Sardinia again), or the "Diavolo" of Tufara (Molise, in picture).

a man wearing a black fur coat, a black mask with a devilish face painted in red and white, with a long red lolling tongue. He's dancing holding a stick.

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Another mask from this Carnevale is "L'Ursë" --a man clothed in animal skin and fur, it symbolizes evil and chaos, and during the festivity it is tied and beaten in a way that is reminescent of the way the ancients represented the myth of creation (Order sprouting from Chaos).

a man wearing fur and leather, and horns, his face covered so that it resembles a monster, a beast

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Another, less famous but equally interesting, Carnevale is that of Alessandria del Carretto, in Calabria. Here, masks called Połëcënellë Biellë flood the streets announced by bells and music. They dance and interact using their canes, gestures that are supposed to bring good luck.

a group of masked people wearing white masks with red cheeks, complex headpieces with flowers and pon pons, and dresses made of flowing fabric strips--all extremely colorful

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

The most famous of Italian Carnevale-related traditions are undoubtly the Sardinian ones. In the Carnevale di Mamoiada, traditional masks called Mamuthones (left) and Issohadores (right) parade around the town, staging a sort of ritual

a man wearing a black, curdely carved wooden mask, a black fur coat, giant bronze bells on his back and smaller ones straped to his chest

a man wearing a white, more delicate mask, a red jacket with an adorned sash, swirling a lasso

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

These days, in Italy, we celebrate Carnevale! The streets are flooded with colorful floats, people wearing all sort of costumes, and kids eating frittelle and chiacchiere. So here's a thread exploring the ancient roots of this heartfelt festivity, and some of its most interesting traditions 🧵

a gorgeous float paraded in the town of Viareggio, portraying several angels: white faces wearing crowns and papal tiaras, surrounded by golden-orange wings

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Post four perfect albums, 10/10, no notes:

cover of FRIGID STARS LP by CODEINE - a white background with black star

cover of DEAD MAN'S PARTY by OINGO BOINGO showing a festive group of skeletons wearing sombreros

cover of LA MASQUERADE INFERNALE by ARCTURUS

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Found the song that perfectly encapsulate my essence

screenshot of the title of a youtube video "Gregorian-Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green day)"

yes it's a gregorian chant cover of the famous Green Day song

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

sacread heart | raffaellabritti.ttt this one's my favorite so far ♥️

a black and white heart pierced by seven swords, surmounted by a flame and surrounded by a halo of light, with blood dripping from the wound. The description is gruesome, but the style is very delicate. It's tattooed on the chest roughtly the size of a palm

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

promare flame | olimpiaquartieri && freehand thorn | marco.odio

picture of an inner forearm with a gradient black, geometric flame on the wrist and a stylized thorn on the forearm

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

BONUS: in Piedmont there's also a traditional Befana cake! The "fugassa della befana" is a sweet focaccia contaning a single fava bean. You're supposed to eat this with family and friends. The person finding the bean will have good fortune for the new year...if they pay for the cake for everyone!

a soft, round focaccia with a lovely golden exterior garnishes with sugar

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

The figure of the Befana changed a lot with globalization. First, as I mentioned, the US cultural hegemony popularized Santa Claus as *the* gift-giving entity during the Christmas period. Second, the Befana - once simply an old woman - gained the look of a witch, with a pointy hat and everything

a modern representation of the befana - despite wearing the classic handkerchief to cover her head, she's also wearing a witchy hat and riding a broomstick

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

The Befana was also central in fascist propaganda: to ingratiate the population, the fascists created the "Befana fascista" (later named "Befana del Duce", when Mussolini began his cult of personality), distrubuting toys and sweets to children in the name of the regime, aiming to pacify the masses

and fascit-era drawing showing and old woman - the befana - putting an image of Mussolini inside a bag, from which a doll already peaks out. The bag has "befana del duce" written on it

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

As per tradition, Italian kids put stocking on their walls the evening of Jan 5th, only to find them filled with candies (or coal!) the morning after. Our supermarkets are also filled with ready-made Befana stocking, sponsored by toys brands and filled with popular treats - because yk, capitalism

average italian supermarket during winter holidays, a shelf full of colorful socks filled with candies or sweets. Among the brands is Barbie, Spiderman, and Masha and the Bear

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Some more pictures from the Festa dei Serpari - a wonderful mixture of paganism and catholicism, devotion and traditions that survive through millennia 📸 by Filippo Monteforte

two girls in traditional clothes (white chemise, black corset, and a decorated veil covering their head) holding one snake each

a close up of the head of St Dominic statue, with a snake coiling around its haldo. A red marking is visible on the snake tail - the marking is supposed to identify where the snake has been taken so that it can be freed int he same spot

the statue of the saint, with snakes around its head and at its feed, being paraded around town

close up of a snake looking at the camera, held by a girl in traditional clothing (blurred as the focus is on the snake curious' face)

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

As with many pagan cults, instead of being eradicated, with the advent of Christianity the cult of Angitia was incorporated in that of the local patron saint - Saint Dominic. So now the statue of the saint, not that of the goddess, is paraded around town clad in living snakes.

A state portraying st Dominc, a bearded middle-aged friar, with a bunch living snakes coiled around it like a sort of writing scarf

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Angitia was a goddess revered by the Marsi, one of the many pre-Roman Italic cultures. Sister to Circe and Medea according to some myths, she was likely a goddess of healing, hence her association with snakes - which in antiquity were connected to medicine (think about the caduceus)

A terracotta statue thought to be of Angitia, dating back to the III century BCE, showing a woman sitting on a flowery throne wearing a robe and necklaces. Her face is unfortunately almost completely destroyed.

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

In my antifascist queer novella LET THE MOUNTAINS BE MY GRAVE, I mention a traditional celebration from the Italian town of Cocullo - the Festa dei Serpari, which nowadays celebrates St Dominic, but has ties with the ancient cult of the goddess Angitia (who has quite an important role in my story 🐍)

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

From Sardegna, we have the SU PAN'E SABA made with saba, which is akin to vincotto, and various nuts. From Calabria, the PETRALI are cookies filled with dried fruit and vincotto. From Campania, apart from the struffoli, other christmas sweets are the MOSTACCIOLI, cookies with chocolate and spices

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Finally, from Apulia, we have the CARTELLATE AL VINCOTTO These are strips of dough, arranged in a corolla and deep fried, then - as the name suggests - soaked in "vincotto", which is a sweet paste made by slow-cooking non-fermented grape must. Alternatively, they can be garnished with simple honey.

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

In Sicily, a typical Christmas sweet is the CUBBAITA, a crunchy "torrone" made with sesame seeds, honey and almonds. incidentally, a similarly named sweet exists in Liguria - the Ligurian CUBAITA is made of honey-drenched almonds sandwiched between two round wafers

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

This other favorite of mine is almost unknown outside of its birth region (le Marche): LU SERPE, the Christmas snake! It's a sort of giant cookie filled with chocolate, shaped and decorated to resemble a snake. Because nothing says Christmas like a chocolate snake! Look at the little fella!

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Another Italian Christmas classic is the PANFORTE Typical of Tuscany, especially the Senese area, it's a sort of sweet, thick bread made with dried figs and nuts, to which honey and various spices among which pepper (hence it's alternative name "panpepato) are added. Its recipe dates back to 1205!!

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Let's start with my favorites - STRUFFOLI! Originally from Naples, but common in all of Southern Italy (with different names), they are tiny balls of deep fried dough drenched in honey and adorned with sprinkles. Sometimes cinnamon and orange rind is added. They are pure sticky deliciousness!

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Heyyyy you're a few books short from completing your 2024 Goodreads challenge? Why not treating yourself to some Neon Hemlock novellas? And if you're in the mood for angry queer antifascists and Italian mythology, my own title reads super fast, so you know...perfect to reach that yearly goal ~

Cover of the book LET THE MOUNTAINS BE MY GRAVE by Francesca Tacchi, depicting a woman from the waist-up. She has long black hair and is wearing roman-style clothes and jewelry. Two snakes climb oved her shoulder. She stands in a field of red carnations. In the background, there are silhouette of the mountains, and a lone figure standing under a tree.

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

The MASSIVE doors of the Curia Julia, the seat of the Roman Senate, can now be admired in the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano. They were looted by the pope in the XVII century (big surprise!) and used as main entrance doors to the church. A pic with me for scale! (I'm 1.65 m)

huge bronze door, with a greenish hue and decorated with starry reliefs, framed by rosy marble

the same door but with me standing in front of them, highlighting their massive size (four times my height!)

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

.............................I hate it here

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Francesca Tacchi 🍋🍉 @ftacchi.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

I hear it's #MosaicMonday! Here's a very interesting piece displayed at the Museo Libero D'Orsi in Stabiae (a wonderful museum which I highly recommend visiting if you're spending some days in the Vesuvian area) A Roman mosaic, and the preparatory "sketch" beneath it, side by side

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