We trained south to Tuscany, where we shacked up with a local in busy Florence for Easter. From Florence we ventured out to up-right the Leaning Tower of Pisa, wander the streets of Sienna and stay in to see the exploding Easter cart in Florence.
Following our sunny streak in Northern Italy we ran into a wall of rain in Pisa. It did make for some fun finger photos while hiding under a tree in front of the leaning tower, and some pretty umbrellas. Pisa *does* have more than just the tower: we found a great little church on the side of the river (ignoring the scaffolding that is on almost every great building we've found..), saw the characteristic buildings of Tuscany in various shades of yellows, and a great little market selling Easter treats. We spotted some ridiculously small trucks (see below) and a statue of a dude standing on a dolphin. We also laughed at people lining themselves up at the tower while we watched on the wrong angle ;) After getting soaked through completely despite our haggled umbrella we returned to Florence.
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| Dolphin.. WTF? |
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| Some mini-trucks! |
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| and BAM, there it was |
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| Hiding under the protection of our tree |
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| Praise Pisa |
Easter Sunday in Florence began as spectacularly as you can expect from Italy. We packed into the square in front of the impressive cathedral to watch oxen (which we couldn't see because of the crowd) drag in a cart then become surrounded by costumed drummers with feathers in their hats. At 11 o'clock a hymn coming from the open church doors was overtaken by the bells in the clock tower which was the signal for the explosion to begin. In what appeared to be a domino-effect, fireworks were set off around each layer of the cart. After recovering from the first round of fireworks that were too low for us to see but plenty loud enough to hear what sounded like gunshots in a very very close proimity... we watched the lights shoot up into the sky, cause the decorative spirals to spin and end in a bang that released flags on the top of the cart. The fireworks filled the square with thick smoke (check it out below), much of which was sucked into the open church doors. The smoke was nothing compared to the sound which didn't get a whole lot easier once we'd convinced ourselves we weren't getting blown up. But the fireworks were cool and there was a thick wall of people between us and the source anyway. Happy Easter ;)
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| How to watch from the front row ;) |
In Florence saw the copy of David (rather than wait hours for the real thing). Beside the impressive cathedral is the Baptistery, the golden doors were said by Michelangelo to be "Worthy Gates to Paradise". The narrow streets were typically filled with pedestrians and the occasional scooter or car had to crawl its' way between the crowd. The main bridge was built up on either side with two-storied jewelry shops and packed with tourists, and on one side we found the best gelato of the trip so far. We chose an Italian leather bag from one of the many touristy-stalls and discovered large gardens that showed off the cities love of baths (huh?) and natives trees and offered great views of the city - plus side, on Easter Sunday entry was free ;) Here we also found an amusing water feature and a bizzare statue-filled room that appeared to have been melted by lava (we guessed). Carbonara, gnocchi and lasagne were all tried, and we ate the smallest amount of Easter eggs we've ever had at Easter!
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| A couple of friendly guys stopped for their picture! |
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| Some Easter eggs of course! |
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| "Worthy as the Gates to Paradise" |
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| They really like baths here... |
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| David |
In Sienna we got our sunshine back and spent the day people-watching outside the cathedral and in the large square. We had set out looking for an Easter market that wasn't on, but enjoyed the statues and views nonetheless.
One last stop in Rome to come!
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