To those of you who celebrate it (including, I've heard, something in the neighborhood of 97 percent of Italians), a Happy Easter! Buona Pasqua to the Italians!
And a Happy Birthday to Husbear's dad GQ. Tanti Auguri, many best wishes, and we are glad we caught your busy self on the phone earlier!
So, you know what Nana, Husbear, and I did today for Easter? We watched the Florentines blow up a 250 year old cart!
We arrived in Piazza del Duomo at 10:40 this morning for the Scoppio del Carro, or Explosion of the Cart, which was supposed to take place at 11. The whole area was already completely packed with spectators and the large cart had already been pulled into place by oxen. Positioning ourselves in the crowd took a little work, but we eventually got to a place where we could see... a little bit. At least we could see the flags thrown by the standard bearers when they were at the top of their arc.
Just after 11, a small rocket shaped like a dove flew from the Duomo and ignited the cleansing fire of the cart. (Seriously. The tradition dates back to the Crusades and has to do with the cleansing fire of Christendom being brought to the heathens during the First Crusade in 1096. The tradition has been carried on since 1102!) The same cart has been in use since the 18th century, loaded down every year with fireworks.
Lucky Husbear's got those long arms - it was the only way we were able to get any pictures of what was actually happening! All around us, children were on shoulders and people lifted cameras high into the air to hopefully capture the happenings.
We couldn't believe just how many fireworks had been loaded onto this cart. Some flew high into the air above us, sparking against the thick clouds of smoke, while others were on frames attached to the cart itself and swirled around and around.
Soot settled slowly on our upturned faces and the air soon became totally full of smoke. It was a terrific spectacle - but if we come again, we will be sure to arrive a little earlier!
The final shebang blew open a flag on top of the cart - I think three flags were supposed to unfurl, but ony one did. We worked our way upstream against the people leaving to see if there was anything to see up front.
Men in costumes milled around, and carters hauled small carts full of olive branches that they distributed to the crowd.
We stuck around for just a few minutes, until we were certain the spectacle was over.
However, lest you think that Florentine Easter is all about only the fireworks and the explosions and the smoke and flame, let me remind you that we are in Italy and so... FOOD!
Here's a piglet in his Easter finery. Lambs have been all over the place, too, hung whole but skinned with little tufts of fur above their cute little hooves.
We spotted this fun-looking bread in the bakery on our corner late last week. Seems like the shells would make this sort of difficult to pick through, but we get shrimp shells off of shrimp in dishes, so why not?
Italians are very much into Easter eggs. Some of the eggs we saw were HUGE, and I've read that you can find any manner of surprise in them, up to and including car keys and engagement rings. In that light, I guess this 250 euro specimen isn't all that shocking. Wait. YES IT IS.
This was in one of our favorite stores to browse, Alessi, just a block south of the Duomo. A couple of weeks ago, we walked into the store to find they had been taken over by Easter spirit.
It's a pretty store to wander normally, but this time we had to move more quickly than usual lest I be tempted by the beautiful chocolates and candies on display.
Though we were easily able to leave behind the enormous eggs. Out of our price range.
Of course, it wasn't just the regular shops that were full of easter candies. The caffes and pasticceria had also really outdone themselves. View the windows of Gilli, one of the grand caffes on Piazza della Repubblica:
Beautifully colored chocolate eggs and trees.
And little chocolate dogs, for the nontraditional:
But it was the chocolatiers that had really outdone themselves. The displays at Vestri, on Borgo degli Albizi, are always nice for a look - but the last couple of weeks they've been just a riot of spring color.
Of course, it's always more fun when you can actually SEE the chocolate, which Andrea Bianchini's shop on Via de Macci was more than happy to accommodate.
(He had the most darling ghost egg, but it was missing from the window when we went to take photos!)
As always, wish you were here! We could look shiftily at chocolate eggs together. This one was just outside of Siena and wishes a happy Easter to all the customers frequenting the bar.
Next, back to the regularly scheduled program. Wine country with J/K, and then on to Florence, and Siena with Nana!
