Figure 1.--Here we see an Italiian boy going barefoot out oif preference. By 1957, Italy was becoming increasingly prosperous. The family is clearly not poor. Also note thast his little broither is wearing sandals.

Most photographs of Italian children going barefoot or of poor children or children during war or other tumultuous events. Poverty is to a great extent the primary factor. We see not only individuals, but whole scgools when just about all of the children or barefoot. Here age was a factor. It was much more commom for the younger children to go barefoot. There are some images of affluent children, even children of the nobility going barefoot, but almost always this is for play in the privacy of the grounds of their often palatial estates. These children almost certainly would have worn shoes when going any where--even casual outings. This is not true for the poor. Many poor children went barefoot, even when dressing up. We see some instance of children from families in comfortable circumstances going barefoot out of preference. But the vast majority of the images we have found are poor children going basrefoot.