One of the best things about staying in Airbnb accommodation where the host is in the house with you is the local knowledge you get access to. Elisa and Ref told us that the Easter tradition in Florence is to head to the Duomo to witness a tradition which we later discovered is called ‘Scoppio del Carro’, or ‘the Explosion of the Cart’. At the end of a very lengthy church service, a white dove is released and if it flies directly to the cart outside, then this signifies that the year ahead would be a good one. Elisa told us that the last time the dove did not fly straight had been a year of terrible weather and devastating economic downturn.
We headed (along with everyone else in Florence) to the Duomo, where we could see men standing outside the church dressed like jesters in bright coloured, patchy clothing and hats with feathers sticking out. I’ve no idea what their position was but amongst them stood the priest, who spoke in monotone Italian for hours, sometimes receiving responses from the crowd. Finally, the dove was released from somewhere inside the church, and it ‘flew’ (it was only now that I realised the dove was mechanical) directly straight, then straight back into the church. This sparked a whole domino-style firework display on the cart, which looked like a wooden tabernacle, outside the church. As one firework ended, there would be a nervous pause until it sparked a new row of fireworks, which spun around and around and then sparked something else just before it died. It was unlike any Easter celebration I had ever seen.
We set off to the Uffuzi gallery, as I wanted a chance to see the real ‘David’. But after seeing how the line wrapped around the street corners, I decided I could live with the replica in the original's position in the Piazza della Signoria.
On our way back into the apartment we spotted Tim and Emma, who we were to spend our last night away with. Our hosts vacated their own bedroom for the night (and slept on the couch) so that we could all stay in the same place.
That night, Elisa took all of us, with the addition of Emma’s friend Molly who had driven there for the night, in a cooking class.
We learnt some amazing techniques, like how to make ricotta from slightly out of date milk, how to make ravioli and fettuccine. We couldn’t believe that all that was in it was flour and egg! Elisa came around checking our pasta - apparently I was ‘never going to be good at this’, which I refused to take and decided to continue working away on the dough myself rather than let her take over from me. Ryan, on the other hand, was ‘bene’.
We made tiramisu and finally, some flat bread which we each rolled out and cooked in a pan, filling it with different types of cheese, prosciutto, and jams and eating it in the kitchen whilst we cooked our pasta.
We sat down to eat our beautiful meals, with some wine they had provided, and were so full after dinner that we had to roll straight to bed.
