What a weekend! Aside from
a minor three-hour delay on our train departure and incessant rain on Sunday,
the trip to Viareggio was a success.
Saturday evening we
arrived in Viareggio in time to catch the last few hours of beautiful weather
and a gorgeous sunset over the Mediterranean Sea. We wandered around the beach town, admiring the charming,
inauthentic ‘old-looking’ buildings that lined the perfectly-gridded
streets—two things we realized are completely absent in Rome (where the
buildings are actually old and
the streets are rarely
perpendicular). After walking
around after dinner and wondering why the streets that were rumored to be
‘filled with people during Carnevale’ were empty, we heard music coming from
the far end of the beach…
Turns out the entire town
(and then some, and then some) were out in the streets in full costume—furry
adult-size onesies were everywhere—dancing
to music that was blaring from different DJ stands while spewing silly string
and confetti all over the place! We checked out the chaotic scene, which, other
than being occasionally body slammed by hundreds of over-enthusiastic dancers,
was surprisingly under control.
We woke up the next
morning to rain that stuck around all day for the Carnevale Parade, which
consisted of incredibly massive, 4+ story tall, paper-mache floats with huge
moving parts that were entirely man-powered by pulleys and ropes. The detail and craftsmanship were
stunning, and the floats were mostly political, incorporating caricatures of
contemporary leaders into outrageous scenes. We spent the entire day under our
umbrellas with saturated feet, but the parade (complete with
sausage-and-sauerkraut sandwiches) was well worth it all.
Just a few more days of
not-so-busy classes before field-tripping to Pompeii on Friday…cheers to that.
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