ITALY: Hymen Harvest

In romantic Venice, the year's largest crop of illegitimate Italians is always born in March, thanks to the annual festive "Hymen Harvest" duly celebrated last week. For this occasion Il Duce's ban against kissing in public, which is punished with a fine of 10 lira (80ยข) was suspended for the night. After filing in a long sacred procession through the Church of Il Redentore, some 10,000 Venetian youths and maidens of the rabble rowed out to the Lido in the year's greatest gondola fleet, slept on the beach under the moon, returned...

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