viareggio

There was confetti everywhereeeee. For the weekend we hung out around Florence but took a day trip to Viareggio in Tuscany. Yes,

Florence is in Tuscany but it's not the typical "countryside", but Viareggio is the countryside alongside the water--beautiful. February seems to be the mo

nth of carnevale in all of Europe...Viareggio's was our first and supposedly the biggest parade/celebration for carnevale in Europe. It was gr

eat, especially since it was actually a sunny day...only the second one we've had since we got here about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The parad

e took place on a huge boardwalk next to the beach and include

d the biggest floats I've ever seen (I heard most of the makers of them start planning/building rig

ht after carnevale for the next year), most of them politi

cal satires.

We got to talking to these guys and girls that were dressed as daisies (yes, daisies) that were part of one of the floats and we my friend Hana, jokingly, asked if we could come on the float

even though spectators aren't

allowed on the floats...and they

said yes! We rode around with our new friends for a little while singing, dancing, and having a great time being an actual part of the parade. The parade lasts three hours though and we got off the float after about half an hour so that we could see the rest of the parade. I added a couple

pictures of us on the float with our newfound friends and one of when we got off the float, they passed by, an

d yelled our names out.

Needless to say, it was a great time and another unexpected event, which made it all that much more fun. I'm planning on cooking a simplified type of chicken cacciatore tonight, but tomorrow we're planning on going out for our first aperitivo, which is when you pay a flat fee (usually about 7 Euro or so) for a drink (wine, etc) and there is either a buffet or you get various appetizers free of charge. Most Italians don't eat dinner until about 8:30 and aperitivo is at 6 or so, so they use it as an appetizer-type course but we would go for dinner fo

r the sake of saving money.

On Saturday, we're heading to Venice for their carnevale. I know Venice is one of the most (if not the most) expensive city in Europe. I'll update after! Ciao!