Creative Musings

So Easter is a little different here in Italy. The biggest difference in Florence is that there is a huge festival called the 'Explosion of the Cart' which we made it to and lets just say it was an experience.
It was worse than a rock concert, in terms of people being squished together. There was a mass crowd of people all surrounding the piazza where the cart is. Even though there was NO space between anyone, there were still people trying to walk through (although no one could really see much unless you were in the front) and they were saying 'Permesso!' which basically is what you say here that means 'let me pass' in a polite way, but there was no where for anyone to move out of the way. It was awful. There was absolutely no personal space. Then we had to stand for an hour in the crowd waiting. Then they the lit off the fireworks, and it was amazing! There were a few sprinkles of rain before the explosion, and after it was over, it actually started to rain. People got their umbrellas out so the crowd had tons of umbrellas over it, so of course the people without umbrellas benefited from the cover, but also got the drips off the edges, and one person's caught on my hair for a second. grr.

Somehow we got separated in the crowd when we first got there. Emma and I got pushed closer to the cart and Sasha got pushed to the other side up on the curb (so she could actually see a bit). Emma and I were buy a cute grandma with her granddaughter who was on her shoulders most of the time and was super cute, she leaned on me sometimes with her tiny hands. We also had some really obnoxious American students in front of us. I didn't like any of the Americans I saw today. The grandma next to me asked this girl if she would keep her voice down, because there were 3 of them swapping stories and speaking really loud. The girls just sort of shrugged, then they talked about how they get in 'trouble' (for talking to loud) all the time but they just ignore it!! It makes me so mad!! It's Easter holiday! These people want to hear what's going on with the festival, not loud Americans voices talking about bars and traveling to other random stuff.... ugh.

Sasha ended up squished next to a really nice couple from Sardegna. They talked quite a bit and Sasha ended up having a pretty good time with them. After the explosion for some strange reason, everyone was trying to go in one direction, without any luck. We tried to make it to the building so we could stand under the eaves while people dispersed. We finally made it, and ended up talking to a nice old Italian man and then he left and we talked to the couple that Sasha was standing by. They are the nicest couple!!! They asked us if we wanted to get lunch or something together the next day (which was Easter Monday, a holiday.) which we did end up doing.

Once we made it home from the Explosion of the cart we got to finally make our Easter Brunch. This is something new that I have been introduced to here and I am totally in love with now. French toast stuffed with Nutella and Mascarpone cheese! It's amazing.

For dinner we decided to go all out and try something new, and Sasha made Duck L'Orange (or however you spell it). Sasha and Emma picked it up in the market from the butcher, and asked him to cut off the head and feet.... which he kindly did. It was slightly traumatic for the girls because they were trying to ask him to cut off the head, and he misunderstood them and picked up the head to show them how it was a pretty black and white duck!! In the end, the duck didn't end up tasting like orange, but was delicious just the same. The beans and sweet potatoes that it was cooked with did taste like orange though!

The next day we got together with the couple from Sardegna that we met at the festival. It was of course pouring rain, which is a ad day to wear wide leg pants. They ended up getting wet from the puddles in the cobblestones and getting my entire left foot & lower leg wet! Which I decided is one of the most awful feelings. We decided just to pick a place close to the Duomo where we met to take cover from the rain. We wanted something hot to drink, and Elisabetta asked the waiter for some hot chocolate or something. His response was "how about some red wine". And we said "how about hot chocolate" because it was about 10:30am. As it turned out they had a huge group of about 40 americans come in the previous day and finished the hot chocolate. So we ended up getting red wine after all. They don't have the no drinking wine before noon rule here anyways. It was funny.

Massimo and Elisabetta invited us to come and visit them in Sardegna. Actually visit, not just the polite "you should come visit" but not really. They said they have a large apartment so they have room for us to stay. I'm so excited! They've been to the US a few times, and have relatives in California and are going back to visit them at the end of the summer. I looked up pictures of their city, Cagliari, which is on the Southernmost tip of Sardegna, as close to Africa as you can get. It looks absolutely amazing. We are planning to go visit them at the very end of April when we have some time off and are done with school.

Click here for pictures from the Explosion of the Cart.
Click here for to see a few photos of the duck!

Labels: Duck, Easter, Explosion of the Cart