Saturday, June 21, 2008
weekend n-2. san ranieri.
ok, this wasn't really the last weekend, but it was the week before so it's considered. 17th June. The festival of Pisa's patron saint. The only time of year something actually happens in this little town. They turned all the streetlamps by the river off, and instead placed hundreds and hundreds of tiny candles along the window sills and outlines of the houses by the river. The great light-up. =) Pretty. Although pretty dark considering the candles were slow-burning - they had to last the whole night! Also, fireworks, gazillions of people. and. Cotton Candy!!! (Zucchero Filato) It was basically a massive carnival / pasar malam. Haha. Complete with light-sticks and balloons for the kiddies and of course the mandatory light-up swords the vendors always try and tempt people to buy. Fireworks were.. disappointing. Except of course the part where the CittaDella looked like they were having a mini-rave in it and got all lit up followed by the fireworks dripping down the walls, and down the bridge over which I walk ever morning. That was the nicest bit. Oh, and the grand finale when they set everything off! Other than that, Singapore's fireworks festivals have kinda spoilt me since I expect everything perfectly choreographed without breaks. Heh. It was Pisa's biggest open air party ever! And the squares were littered with people till 5am in the morning - which believe me, for Pisa, is a big deal! Normally by like 3, the city's kinda asleep. To be honest, this is what I expected a student town to be more like when I first came here. Of course, not as crowded - since people came from all over to party - but with something happening somewhere all the time.
|
