“Liberation Day” was what President Trump called it when he began imposing his Let’s-Make-a-Deal tariffs, which turned out to be an unconstitutional tax on Americans.

In Italy, it’s something else. It’s today, April 25, Festa della Liberazione, Italy’s emotional celebration of the April 1945 liberation of Italy from its Fascist regime and German occupation by the Nazis.

On the cobblestone street where we stood, a 50ish firefighter climbed a wooden ladder to hang a laurel wreath on the Mayor’s residence, the main municipal office of Fano.

It was a curious vantage point for us, a couple of Americans who found ourselves in the middle of the action.

To our right, the Fano marching band had just played patriotic songs and stood waiting. Along the opposite wall, as the cloudless morning sunlight crept down the ancient bricks, military veterans wore decorated uniforms and sang their anthems, hands over chests.

To our left, down the street, a crowd under the “East Coast Antifa” flag, hundreds of townspeople, were chanting, holding Italian, “Pace” and Palestinian flags. They were loud and coordinated, stuffed together behind a street-wide banner spelling “ora é sempre. . .RESISTENZA!” (The time is now. . .Resistance!)

Were we about to witness a street brawl? A confrontation between the patriotic old and the angry young?

Not at all. Both ends of the street sang the same songs. The old veterans in uniforms seemed pleased with the day, not the least bit bothered by the protest, as far as I could tell. I sensed a kinship in the Italian generations.

Later, the idea was expressed in a sign that some young boys were carrying, “Nonni Partigiani, Nipoti Antifascisti” (Partisan Grandparents, Antifascist grandchildren).

I talked to a couple of the Resistance protesters carrying Palestinian flags. Their “resistance” was not against anything in Fano, and barely against Italy. Mainly, they did not trust Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s turnaround over an agreement on armament support for Israel. The young woman told me the Rome-based defense contractor Leonardo, partly owned by the Italian government, continue to supply arms used by Israel against civilians.

The man I talked to, named Flavio and wearing a t-shirt that said “Death Death,” was exceedingly pleasant. He seemed slightly abashed to tell me the worst is not Meloni but my President.

The spirit of Italy’s Liberation Day, the honoring of the anti-Fascist Partisans who were finally liberated by the Allies, is the same as the spirit of the Resistance today, he said – for democracy.

As in 1945, so it is today, a dignified celebration. But after seeing the old film clips from 1945, what we saw today was different, matured by 80 years of peace and remembrance. The old and the young seem much closer together here than the old and young back home in the United States. Or the Right and the Left.

Most of the town, though, was not at the celebration. They were walking around or riding bikes and shopping in the crowded Saturday markets around Fano.