La Pasqua e Il Scoppio del Carro della Firenze

Buona Pasqua a Tutti!

Anna and I are all about the church and not missing the wonderful services it has offered us since we have been in Italy. Last weekend in Rome with Palm Sunday and this weekend in Firenze with Easter. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity we told each other, so despite returning home around 3am Saturday night we decided we would wake up at 8:30 and be at the Duomo by 9:15.

What an experience...

We arrived at the Duomo around 9:20, the Piazza had been fenced off between the baptistry and the duomo with an entrance opening toward the south west corner of the Piazza. Here about 12-15 Carabinieri stood chatting on their cell phones and smoking cigarettes. Two old women walked toward them and as the Carabinieri started to deny them access to the church we noticed them show the Carabinieri yellow passes and then tell them their names. Then the Carabinieri looked through a list and found their names and let them enter the church... So much for Anna and I getting in to see the main Easter mass! Oh well...

We set off toward Piazza della Republica to find a Brioche and conveniently ran into the Florentine flag throwers and a parade going through the Piazza. The Brioches could wait. We went to watch the parade and stayed until the cart of fireworks being carried by 4 large white cows went by, then we knew we had to get back to the Duomo. We ran up a side street, stopping briefly to grab a delicios Brioche con la marmellata di mele for 1 euro (shocked it was so cheap so close to the duomo) then continued toward the duomo to be bombarded with a huge crowd already forming.

We went to the other side of the Baptistry and positioned ourselves on the curb looking across the front of the Duomo with a perfect view of the Campanile. JK would be perfect view of the Campanile if I wasn't 5 feet tall, and there weren't 8 billion people above 5'6" standing in front of me... AWESOME, thank god that cart and the duomo are HUGE so I just looked up!

The cart entered the piazza and was positioned directely in front of the duomo. It was only 10:00, so we had an entire hour of standing ahead of us. We watched as the fire truck came, and a crane held people and positioned them to add things atop the cart and assemble the fireworks. Around 10:25 the 6'2" man standing in front of us decided to light a cigarette and blow all his smoke on us... wonderful.

We waited patiently, slowly getting more tired and wanting to find a cafe to sit and have a drink and we kept listening for the bells of the campanile to tell us it was almost 11. At 10:40 the bells rang for 10 minutes straight, and then there was 10 minutes till 11. We could hear the priest inside the church singing and we were getting really anxious for the display to start.

Right at 11:00 we saw a string from inside the church connected to the cart get lit and watched the fuse ignite the cart. Beautiful explosions everywhere, smoke covering the churches exterior and the piazza, and noise shaking the ground. Red smoke poured from the cart giving everything a very dramatic effect, then larger fireworks began exploding. For 15 minutes fireworks continued to explode off the cart and we decided it was totally worth the wait, and the smoke in our faces.




Immediately after it was finished, Anna and I booked it to a side street. We had had enough crowding and people for one day. We walked past a small church called San Michele and decided it would actually be a good idea to attend a mass. Katie called us and said she was trying to get into the Duomo, so we went to check it out. We saw people getting in the side door so we ran to get in... In the massive inside there were SO many people, tourists everywhere and no pews to sit in. We decided mass in the infinitely smaller church of San Michele would be a better way to celebrate easter so we speed walked back to the church and found ourselves a pew. We attempted to sing the songs in Italian and we ended up really enjoying the Italian mass It was a tiny little church but had a beautiful interior and was totally worth it.


After mass we went in search for food. We ended up at a small place near Antico Noe and the Lions Fountain and had Paninis for lunch. We both had a panini with fritata, carfiofi and asiago. It was pretty darn good for 4 euro. I had a cappuccino to warm up and she had a ciocolata calda, which tasted BOMB cause it was unsweetened.. so much better than swiss miss! After lunch we were tired and it was around 2:00. It had started to rain slightly so we took our umbrellas out, paid for our lunch and left for our homes. I walked to SMN and took the bus back to our house. Got home around 2:30 where I took a long nap.

I woke around 6:00 and went on Skype. I skyped with Alex who apparently in the middle of doing the dishes and I interrupted him. Told him about the "secret bakery" we had found the night before then waited for the Dad's family to arrive at my house in Wayland so we could do a large Skype session.

At 7:00 the family was at my house and I got to see everyone at home. It was nice to see everyone but I wished I was with them. Nonni was adorable trying to see me on the television and wondering if I could see her, and she told me we needed a sign language cause she couldn't understand me and continued to show us the motion for "F U" but don't think she realized that's what the motion of under your chin means today.

It neared 8:00, Claudia still wasn't home and Sam and I were getting nervous we weren't going to be fed on Easter. Around 8:05 Claudia, her daughter, Chiara and boyfriend arrived and cooked us dinner. We had very long dinner discussing movies and other things. For dinner we had an intersting bread and tomato concoction. A fettucine with meat hand made by the Nonna (Avery and Alex's host mom), and lamb of course along with some peas and spinach for the verdura. It was delicious as usual and after we resided to our bedroom.

Skype session 2: The Serafini side...

The volume and commotion of this skyping experience was on a whole other level than the D'Ambrosio side. Nonna demanded I bring the computer to Claudia, so I obeyed, they chatted for a few minutes, it was so cute. I talked with Toni, Serena, Nonno, Lisa, Phyllis and Sandy...

It was so nice to see everyone's face today. Thank you skype. And now it is 12:30, no class tomorrow yay for Pasqualino, but we are going as a class to the Uffizi at 3. I had a great Easter in Firenze, quite the experience! BUONA PASQUA!

A dopo! Baci!