La festa dell'uva

Today, Andrea and I woke up around 11 and took the bus into the center to try to catch the 12:30 shuttle to Impruneta. Of course, we couldn't find it and missed it, but there was another one coming at 2:40. To kill time, we toured inside the church of Santa Maria Novella which was beautiful and absolutely enormous! After that, we found the famous Santa Maria Novella farmacia. It was awesome! Not like any of the other farmacie. We walked through a long, marble, dimly lit hallway lined with statues and arrived in the first room. That room sold chemicals to mix for perfumes and types of elixirs. It smelled amazing. The second room sold natural herbs. The third room sold potpourri and looked out to the private piazza of the monastery to which the farmacia is attached. The whole place had beautiful frescoed ceilings and dim, old-fashioned lighting. Of course everything was ridiculously expensive. We even saw some soap dishes and pill boxes that we watched the metal smith make a few weeks ago on our artisan tour. He had told us how he sells to Santa Maria Novella farmacia. Of course, they were marked so much higher than it costs him to make them. 70 euro! Ridiculous.

Once 2:40 rolled around, we made it back to the bus and hopped on. I of course passed out the second I sat down and, within a half hour, we arrived at Impruneta for La Festa dell'uva. This festival was the 83rd annual, where Italians honor the importance of the grape to their wine culture. There was a ton of food and so many meats and cheeses that I had never seen before. There was also an awesome parade that lasted about 2 hours. I had never seen such intricate floats or costumes. The large floats had grapes hanging from them and also arranged as images of grape vines, stars, etc. One of the coolests floats was 2 stories. On the top deck was a woman wearing this crazy blue dress and headpiece. She was surrounded by grapes. The bottom deck had a bunch of men dressed as Italian farmers. They were clearly having a blast because there was a little table set up with a grill next to it. On the table, they had cheeses, breads and dried meats. One man stood by the grill and smoked raw meats, etc. There was also a garden hose with an unlimited supply of red wine that they pumped into water bottles of people in the crowd. I was a little far, so I couldn't get any. So yea, they were getting drunk and eating great food while moving along in the parade. There were lots of other floats, but that was definitely the most memorable. I have lots of pictures to come.

Being at that festival was such an amazing experience for me. While I was watching, I had one of those cultural rushes of euphoria. I felt immersed and so privileged to be able to see such a unique parade that was so important to the lifestyle and culture of the Tuscan region. The music and dancing was great, and even though we were able to spend only 2.5 hours there, we had a great time.

Now, I'm back at home waiting for Maria Pia to finish making pizza. I have a lot to study tonight because we have our level test tomorrow to find out if we pass to the next level or not. We also start university! AhhHh! I'm so intimidated. Good thing a lot of us are in the same class.

Ok, off to study!

Buona notte!