La Befana: The Witch Who Comes Before Epiphany

Why do Italian children put out their shoes on January 5th to be filled with candy? Why are there so many witches and witch-related accoutrement after Christmas? And what can you do on January 6th in Italy to celebrate (or just partake) in Epiphany? Well, free candy galore, for one! In this episode, we dive in and give you everything you need to know about Epiphany. If you’re planning on going to Rome this year, we highly recommend booking your hotels (and potentially even your flights) as soon as possible. If you’d like to help out Only A Bag, you can use our affiliate links marked with an asterisk. For hotels, we tend to use Booking* since we’re already a part of their member program, but Expedia* also has a robust member program with similar prices on hotel rooms. For an aggregate that seems to offer slightly better deals across the board, we recommend checking out Agoda*. And if you’ve always loved the idea of staying in Italy for an extended period and becoming part of the culture, we can’t recommend housesitting enough. While it does often entail taking care of someone’s pet, it can also be a gateway to seeing Italy in a totally new way. We use Trusted Housesitters* which has a fairly steep upfront cost (a few hundred dollars) but that’s covered with a few nights of a house sit which should never cost you money. Lastly, if you’re already looking to book flights, we like to use the airline’s website, however, some aggregates do offer better deals, so we always recommend checking Expedia* or Booking* before purchasing. Thank you so much for listening! We would absolutely appreciate it if you could follow us and rate us wherever you listen; it helps the podcast grow and it makes us feel like we're making a difference! You can find us at ⁠onlyabag.com⁠ and ⁠@onlyabagpodcast⁠.