Mysterious laundry woman

Mysterious laundry woman

[ Feb.

2013 ] When I visited Pavia, south of Milan, I found this statue along the Ticino river.

At first I thought she is ironing, but in fact, washing clothes or linens by hand.

The title of the statue is ‘ la lavandaia (washing lady)’ and built to commemorate the women washing clothes in this river more than 100 years ago.

But why? There is a poem at the foot of the statue by local poet called Dario Morani and perhaps you need to read and understand it to find out the reason.

Well, does anyone know?