It's Easter Sunday and it looks like it'll be a mix of rain and not rain today. We decided to attend the Scoppio del Carro - explosion of the cart - in between the Duomo and the Baptistry. This is a 900 year old tradition that hopes to have a successful 'explosion' heralding in a prosperous harvest season. We knew it would be crowded so for the 11:00am 'show' we got there at 9:30am; it was already buzzing with people and we were 5 deep from the barriers. We took our spot, enjoyed photographing the parade that starts the festivities, including the cosplay of knights and maidens and the four, white chianino bulls that pull the cart which is reused every year - explosion being a term for fireworks.
After everyone lined up outside the church and positioned the cart in just the right spot, of course the sky decided to add some excitement to the mix, which has been the norm in the past, so up go umbrellas and it is ever so difficult to see, well, anything. We had the world's tallest man and his girlfriend/partner in front of us and when he wasn't dripping water on me, he was bending down to play kissy face completely obscuring any view. I mean, c'mon man! It's Easter. We're at a religious/socially important event. Could you not PDA every two seconds? That's right - GET OFF MY LAWN.
Anyway, the rain stopped and the clouds parted - not kidding - and breached it's way over the Duomo while we were treated to the homily and sacred music from inside the church while the workers set up the cart. How this works is, after Mass, a wooden dove 'flies' out of the church via guy wire and 'ignites' the cart which in turn, sends the dove back into the church. The cart then 'explodes' it's payload - I don't know how many fireworks - for about 20 minutes of choreographed visual delight.
We thought we had gotten there late, but when we turned around, there were people for at least 100 feet behind us.
We reversed our course and headed for our quite neighborhood, a nap and some food. Tomorrow, Kit and Jeri join us for our second week of living in Italy.
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