ROME -- A torch-lit procession took place in Pozzuoli, Naples, on Tuesday evening in a show of grief and anger at this week's latest high-profile case of violence against women, the third brutal attack in 24 hours. Carla Ilenia Caiazzo, 38, is the only of the three women to have survived, now in a grave condition in hospital with third degree burns on half of her face and body after her husband attempted to set light to her.

 Caiazzo was pregnant at the time, but had an emergency caesarean in hospital. The procession took place in her name in Pozzuoli where she lived, attended by over 500 people including representatives from anti-violence associations as well as local mayors. White balloons were released at the end to a round of applause.

 "These incidents unleash so much anger for a woman," said Rosa Capuozzo, mayor of nearby Quarto, who was also at the procession. "It is a continuous slaughter against women. They often remain alone, and the few institutions which do support them sometimes cannot intervene in time when there are outbreaks of violence against them."

 Caiazzo's partner, Paolo Pietropaolo, threw alcohol on her and attempted to set her alight after learning about her relationship with another man. He has had charges brought against him for multiple premeditated murder - against both Caiazzo and her then unborn child - but maintains not having had any intention to kill her.

 A neighbour, Gennaro Tassieri, who intervened during the attack to try to save the woman, recounts seeing him hit her repeatedly. "Then [Paolo] went to get a bottle from the car, I thought it was acid but from the smell I realised it was alcohol. I tried to stop him but I couldn't, then I saw flames all around her. The first thing I tried was to put out the flames, but I couldn't manage. So I opened the tap and grabbed the water tube while he got into the car and escaped."

 Caiazzo is now in hospital with severe damage to her neck, chest, back and face.

 A further incident took place in Catania on Sunday night, when 41-year-old mother of three Luana Finocchiaro was strangled by an ex-boyfriend. They had reportedly been fighting over the charge of their four-year-old son, who was in the house when he strangled her. Finocchiaro was found in her house on Monday by her mother, after she did not answer her calls.

 The woman's former partner Vincenzo di Mauro, 37, was previously sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in 2000 for the murder of neighbour Francesco Tirendi after he alleged that the latter had made advances on his girlfriend, then 17. He tied a plastic bag around Tirendi's head and strangled him.

 A third violent episode occurred in Brescia, where a woman was killed by her husband before he committed suicide. Marinella Pellegrini, 56, was found on the floor of her kitchen when police entered their house in via Celafonia, half-decapitated from a deep neck wound and surrounded by a pool of blood.

 The couple had apparently argued, leading her husband to attack her with a knife before making a dramatic phone-call in which he confessed, "I have killed Marinella and now I am going to kill myself." Paolo Piraccini, also 56, afterwards threw himself into the path of an oncoming lorry and died immediately.

 Pellegrini worked in an office in the Brescian town of Castegnato. Neighbours tell of "a quiet and very reserved couple."

 Despite having made progress in the last years with the introduction of a new law combating stalking, Italy still suffers from widespread 'femmicide'. The most recent ISTAT data shows that around seven million Italian women have undergone either physical or psychological violence, but less than 12 percent of these have had the courage to report it.

 An ISTAT report on violence against women details that violence in the family often happens in front of children, who become the unknowing victims of the trauma caused by the memory of these incidences.

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