April 10, 2007

Easter Sunday

As you would probably guess Easter is a big deal in Italy. First thing in the morning there is a parade with soldiers, drummers and flag throwers bearing the city's crest with everyone dressed in renaissance era costumes. At the end of this procession are clergymen/pyrotechnicans leading a fireworks cart drawn by 4 cows—the cows are also all dressed up. The cart is lead up the doors of the Duomo, a cable is connected to the cart and runs through the air inside the Duomo. After a very long wait, a fire carrying dove flies out along this cable and sets the whole thing off. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so you'll have to imagine what a 5 metre wide, 3 story height pile of fireworks looks like when it goes off—however the photo from the web on the right will give you some idea ;-)

In the afternoon we went for a walk south across Ponte Vecchio over the Arno river. This is one of the nicer area's of Firenze, large houses on good sized sections. We walked out of the city gates and along Viale Niccolo Machiavelli that eventually turns into Viale Michelangiolo—which is pretty much the best place to go for a run in the city. That road is also used by Firenze's cyclists to train and I can see why, it's beautiful up there and the asphalt is super smooth. The view from the hills was exceptional as you can see, olive groves line the hillside leading down the river from the winding tree lined road.

Posted by Matt at April 10, 2007 1:55 AM

Fraggle Chitter Chatter

Merry Easter Matt! :-) I'm absolutly loving your photos - they're beautiful! Out looking for work this morn in Melb CBD. Seems most travel agencies do it all online, so here I am!
Your apartment looks really nice. I think I should definitly visit Italy ;-) xx

Posted by: Red Fraggle at April 10, 2007 1:31 PM

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