Legend has it that Valentine was a bishop in the Italian town of Interamna (today's Terni) who died a martyr's death on the 14th of February. february 273 (or perhaps 269 or 270), which is why the Feast of the Lovers is celebrated on this day. Secretly and despite prohibitions, he married couples in love, urged soldiers not to go to war and to stay at home with their families, workedhis healing abilities, he was called the protector of the fallen and the gout.
Historically, February 14 and Valentine's Day first appeared with romantic love in the work, The Fowl Assembly, by the greatest poet of the English Middle Ages and politician, Geoffrey Chaucer. This 14th-century poem is about how birds choose their mates and was written as a tribute to the betrothal of the 15-year-old English king Richard II. to Princess Anne of Bohemia, daughter of Charles IV. Although this marriage between the English king and the Bohemian noblewoman was called off for political reasons, great love is said to have flared between the couple, and Geoffrey Chaucer eventually became the man who made St. Valentine's Day the patron saint of lovers.
The earliest Valentine's Day message is said to have been written by Charles, Duke of Orléans, when he sent a greeting to his wife from his prison in the Tower of London in 1415. Later, love notes (valentines) gradually spread throughout Great Britain and, in the mid-18th century, to America. First Valentine's cards were given, then cards were sent with a heart as a symbol of love.
Today, in Italy, it is a popular custom on Valentine's Day to go out for a romantic dinner, take a short trip just the two of you and, above all, buy your beloved red underwear.
