Independence Day, a little later

Even though it’s a rainy, cool evening the birthday party for Italy is going full tilt at 8pm. We’ve just come in from our first walk through the festivities and we’d like have a glass of wine and share a little of what we’ve seen with you.

There are three venues for the celebration in Florence. The Piazza del Duomo, the religious center, is the site of some artisans showing off their craftwork. There were crowds of people milling around but it was pretty quiet there.

The Piazza della Signoria, the civic center, had a show with a singer and a small orchestra that was being televised. Bright lights, cameras on a huge boom, trucks with satellite uplinks. Most impressive was the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio lit up in green, white, and red and Michelangelo’s David (a copy, of course) standing guard next to tricolored banners. Very impressive.

Piazza Santa Croce, the great Franciscan church with a large rectangular piazza, was just setting up for some kind of show. Part of the show, however, was already underway; a huge hot air balloon in the center of the piazza.

We’ll have some baccelli (raw, young fava beans), some soft creamy pecorino cheese, and some red wine and go out again to check on the progress of the birthday party.






Still later


At 11:30pm the streets are full of people, all having a good time. The museums are open and free. The restaurants are open. The bars are full of young people.


Almost all the people we've seen are Italians, including in the places normally haunted by tourists. With a few exceptions, we only heard Italian, no English, no German, no other languages. The Italians were out with their families, including young children. Tomorrow is a holiday so the cranky, tired children will be at home. 


Hope tomorrow goes well for the parents; tonight looked like a good experience for all.