Buona Pasqua!

Hello all and a happy late Easter!! We still have no wifi in the apartment, so posting here has ultimately halted until we've gotten it resolved. I did however spend my Easter in Italy which has to be the most amazing place to spend a Christian holiday! I think we should be bringing all of the traditions here back to the States as it's pretty impressive!

I got to witness Scoppio del Carro (Explosion of the Cart) on Sunday morning! It was incredible!!! Scoppio del Carro includes a parade and the moving of a large, beautifully decorated cart to the center between the Baptistry and the Duomo by white ox. Unfortunately I hadn't gotten close enough to see the ox, though after they move the ox to a safe distance away, they begin an outside mass service in Italian.

Once the service ends, they light the cart on fire and blow fireworks off from it! I wish there were a way for me to explain this a little more elegantly, though it is literally an exploding cart and it's hard to say anything other than it was SO COOL; waking up early on Easter to go see something explode? A good tradition, I think! I'm not sure how to describe it, so I'll upload pictures and hopefully they'll do a good job explaining just what happened!

I hadn't gotten too many great shots of the parade, after weaseling my way through the crowd to the front, though I got enough to show you what the fantastic costumes were like! Before Scoppio del Carro, they would play drums and chant and sing through the service, it was really amazing.

One of the main traditions in Italy is to give giant chocolate eggs, filled with toys or charms, to friends and family members! Each of the storefronts was filled with colorfully wrapped eggs the past few weeks, it was so much fun to see! My roommates and I each got one for the day. We were also invited over to Raffaella's home, one of the exchange students from Italy to MCAD last semester, to have dinner on Monday night. It was so much fun and soooo so nice of her family to invite us! Her dad even got us chocolate eggs!!! They always make such amazing foods for us, there were five different courses that night, antipasta, two pasta dishes, a meat dish (her mom made a special vegetarian dish as well, it was so sweet of her!), and a dessert! With coffee just afterwards! Raffi's family is always so kind to us, and the food is so delicious, it was super fun to be there that night!

I'll post more soon, I've been hanging out a lot in the Bobilini Gardens, mostly in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna which I am unable to take pictures in, but the views from the Medici mansion are simply gorgeous!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Easter! I'll try to post more soon!