The “Befana“ meeting of the Fiat 500 Club Italia at Roma Litorale on 6 January 2023

More than a hundred Fiat 500s celebrate “Befana” in Rome

In many European countries, Christmas presents are given to the children by the Christ Child, Santa Claus or St. Nicholas of Myra – this is different in Italy where this task is traditionally taken over by the witch Befana. The old legend has it that immediately after hearing from the shepherds about the birth of the Infant Jesus, Befana set off in search of the newborn Saviour. But unlike the Three Magi, all she found was an empty stable. Since then, she has been flying restlessly from house to house in Italy, giving generous gifts every year on the night of 5 to 6 January. 2023 was the sixth time that the Roma Litorale section of the Fiat 500 Club Italia celebrated the Befana festival together with their little Fiat 500s. And having met chief organiser Andrea Prudenzi and the club section members already during his visit in the summer of 2022 (we reported on this here), our colleague Andreas took the opportunity and accepted the invitation of his friends to visit them on the occasion of the Befana festival.

Andreas was especially looking forward to seeing Andrea Prudenzi, his wife Simona and their daughter Aurora again, after having been welcomed warmly by the family on his first visit. To Andreas, this clearly demonstrated at that time that Andrea was and still is a true Fiduciario (= leader and liaison man of the club section). Indeed, Fiat 500 Club Italia members like our colleague Andreas should always have the possibility to turn to the Fiduciario of a region, even when just passing through or in case of problems, even other than a breakdown of their Fiat 500.

Andrea Prudenzi

Right at 7 a.m. they all left for the venue, an area specially reserved for Fiat 500 drivers on the premises of the Parco 51 shopping centre in Pomezia, south of Rome.

Andreas assisted the organising team around Andrea, Simona, Antonio and Mauro to the best of his ability with the last preparations, before registration began at 9 a.m. when and the first of finally more than one hundred Fiat 500s started to come in.

Besides, there were once again numerous creative feats to marvel at: The club members had decorated their little 500s with figures and scenes from the mythological world in keeping with the occasion, and even the odd “real” witch mingled with the crowd.

“Those who felt like it could take part in the indoor electric go kart competition (Trofeo Piston Cup 2023) or just have a couple of laps for themselves – this was really good fun!” Andreas told us.

Then, it was time for the highlight of the meeting: the big Parade of Witches as part of a Fiat 500 car convoy, driving around the shopping centre, where the witches generously gave sweets to the children they passed on their way.