Carnevale, part 2

Saturday afternoon and evening, after our day in Florence on Friday, a group of us CETers and Christina headed to the coastal town of Viareggio, about a two hour train ride from Siena. It is known for its Carnevale celebration, so witnessing the closing parade on the last weekend of its celebrations was a must.

Carnevale of Viareggio!

Streets of Viareggio (palm trees!)

Very different from Venice, Viareggio exhibits a lot of politically inspired floats and has more of a "state fair" kind of festival feeling. Families, street food, music and rides were the norm.

A lady bug throwing confetti :)

Highlights:

-THE BEACH. Although it was a little chilly, it was bearable and amazing. How I missed the water.

-Green wig. Yes I did buy one, and yes it was the best decision of my life.

-Floats. Not even sure if floats is the best word for them. Mechanical and HUGE, they were the most impressive "floats" I've seen in my life. Take a look:

The day before this trip, the school took a field trip to Florence in order to visit the Salvatore Ferragamo museum. Pictures weren't allowed, but suffice it to say that it was the coolest school field trip I've ever been on. We got to see molds of some of the most famous stars' feet, and checked out a huge range of his works, including the stilettos and wedges he patented. The store above the museum may as well have been an extension of the museum, considering how immaculate (and expensive) it was. Fun fact: he was one of the first people to tie celebrities and fashion together, as all of the biggest stars of the post WWII period went to him for shoes (Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, etc.)

The next few hours were spent in the San Lorenzo market and at the Ponte Vecchio.
Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

Evan and I.

I've still got so much to see in Florence! The market needs to stop drawing me in for hours every time I go...seriously.

I promise....

New posts are coming! Papers and midterms just aren't conducive to keeping up a blog. But, here's some pictures from this weekend in Florence and Viareggio...

Photo credit to Sarah, thanks for the awesome picture! Me on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

School sponsored field trip: tour of Salvatore Ferragamo's museum. I'll take it.

Carnevale Part 2! Viareggio, a coastal town two hours from Siena. How I missed the beach.

In other news, CET went to Siena's Mens Sana basketball game last week. Full of wanna-be American NBA players, dancing frogs and a rowdy Italian fan club, it was not something to be missed. We lost at the last minute to Real Madrid, but the fans didn't seem too upset, considering the amount of enthusiastic clapping that commenced after the game. This was confusing to me. Everybody stayed until the end and showed undying support for their team even though they lost a game they had been winning for most of the time? I don't think I'm at UVA anymore...

Dancing frog...? He had some pretty lame moves. And danced to the same three American club songs.

Yesterday, Faith, Stella and I saw The Artist at a small, artsy theater on the other side of town. It was the complete opposite from the ridiculous movie going experience in the states (10 dollar popcorn, 20 million theaters, people being loud and just generally impolite). Granted it wasn't the commercial theater, but it was calm and sophisticated, and the movie was just great (and written in English!)

Ciao for now!