First day of the year

Last night we stood out on our terrazza (terrace) for over an hour watching the fuochi d'artificio (fireworks) in many different directions. There were some near the Duomo, Fiesole, Santa Croce, Piazzale Michelangelo, and Campo di Marte. We couldn't pinpoint their exact location, but we knew roughly the areas.

Living in Florence :: First day of the year

In the piazza below our house, people were setting off petardi (firecrackers). As you can see in the picture, while the smoke was rising from the piazza, the fuochi d'artificio were going off all around us.

Even after we went to bed, I could hear my telephone go off because of friends still sending me SMS messages until almost 3AM.

This morning when I went back onto the terrazza, I saw a few tourists walking around the piazza. It was a grey day with a little bit of drizzle. Luckily, the temperatures weren't too low so it felt good to be outside.

I wanted to walk down a few streets in centro (downtown) because my friend Rossella told me that the fiorentini (Florentines) normally throw plates out the window as a symbol of getting rid of the old to make room for the new. I must say that the past few times that I've walked outside, I have only seen broken beer and wine bottles in the streets.

We ended up not throwing anything out on Capodanno (New Year's Day), but when we moved apartments last month, we did get rid of a lot of things. So hopefully, that counts. We have made lots of room for the new in 2007!

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