Independence Day in Italy

The streets were full of happy Italians last night, young people, old people, children, families. Our apartment is on a fairly busy street and the atmosphere was festive (errr, noisy) well past the wee hours. In fact, the announcement that the party was over was the street cleaner that came by under our window at about 6am or 7am. After that the street fell into silence.

Sundays are very, very quiet here. Once you get out of the touristy area in the center of Florence, most the stores and many of the cafes and restaurants close down on Sunday. The streets are quiet until afternoon and then people come in from the outskirts to walk around the town. 

Today, Thursday, March 17, the first Independence Day ever celebrated in Italy, seemed like a Sunday. Red, white, and green flags were flying everywhere but lots of places were closed. Others had limited hours. And the streets were very, very quiet in the morning.

We were out in the morning and found a special way to celebrate Italian independence at our favorite coffee bar and pastry shop, Pasticceria Nencione on Via Pietrapiana, a few blocks from our apartment. We stopped for cappucino but as you can see we asked for something that seemed especially appropriate to the holiday.