If you don’t enjoy cold weather, then you may want to avoid traveling to Italy the last three days of January: those are the (in)-famous ‘Giorni della Merla’, the days of the blackbird, and, according to tradition, they are the coldest of the year. In Italy, the ‘giorni della merla’ have been the subject of countless stories, legends, proverbs, and even nursery rhymes, for a long time.

But why are the ‘days of the blackbird’ known as such? And why are they considered the coldest? There are different legends, all revolving around white blackbirds that turned black. Here’s the most popular legend, set in Milan (indeed, the origin of the expression seems to stem from the region of Lombardy, where Milan is located).