Italian Women Over 60 Never Wear These 10 Things at Christmas (And What They Wear Instead)

Buongiorno, my dear friends. I am Giulia Moretti. I spent thirty years in the ateliers of Milan, and now I live in Rome, two streets from Campo de' Fiori. And here is something you should know about an Italian Christmas. It is not one party. It is a month of them. The seventh of December is Sant'Ambrogio, the patron saint of Milan, and that night La Scala opens its season, and every woman in the city has been thinking about her dress since October. Then the Vigilia, the dinner on Christmas Eve. Then Mass at midnight. Then the lunch on the day itself, which does not end before five. Then Capodanno, New Year's Eve. Then the sixth of January, the Befana. Five weeks. And an Italian woman gets through all of it looking better than she does in July, with fewer clothes than you'd think.