Women Refugees in Italy During the Russian–Ukrainian Conflict¹

The essay presents a forced move from Ukraine to Italy at the time of the 24/02/2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It focuses on a woman with her child who left their home to reach Italy. Ukrainian-born people in Italy in 2022 reached 223,000 residents; yet, with the ongoing war, at least 100,000 Ukrainian citizens, mostly with refugee status, entered the country. An account follows the journey of mother and child towards San Marino, a state within the state, but their target had to change because only a limited number of migrants could stay. They left for Emilia where, with some difficulty, a relatively stable residence was found a few kilometres from the beach. They managed to spend the summer months there before relocating to town for the little one to find cognitive and social protection attending maternity school. The mother explained, in an interview, her need to protect her little one and find support for them two. She had to learn ways of socialising, avoiding the sense of loss trying and conceiving of how to explore and practice art. Beauty amid war, besides colouring our personal feelings, can help recreating an atmosphere of recollection and intimacy drawing attention to images, sound, movement and all the ways of stimulation for body and mind to raise emotions, symbolisation and well-being. Final aims were the embodiment of aesthetics to recreate oneself and the achievement of a state of resilience.