I posted on another forum my desire to see how Italians celebrate Easter (I like any excuse to get to Italy).

I ended up spending Easter in Florence, and it was well worth it:

In the morning, there was an impressive parade from the area of the Piazza della Signora to the Duomo. People were dressed in early Reinassance customes - first came standard-bearers in full armor (with their rimmed helmets they reminded me of the Spanish Conquistadores), then "nobles" in multicolored pantaloons, young maidens, "peasants" pushing carts, and "city elders" on horseback. There were drummers and musicians blowing on long brass horns, and a large group bearing multicolored flags who had a carefully coreographed routine that included throwing them pretty darn high into the air, and catching the one of the next person over when they came down.
Behind them, a tractor dragged a big box that was decorated in a very fancy manner and reminded me of one of Fabarage's laquered creations.
After tiptoeing into the church of San Lorenzo to watch the Easter Mass taking place in there, I went back to the Duomo. It was about 10:30 and a crowd of several hundred people had assembled. I was able to get a spot on one side of the square, about 20 meters from the doors of the cathedral. In between the Duomo and the Baptistry the big box had been set.
In the next half hour the crowd got even bigger and I could see it spilling something like 20 meters into the street behind me. At 11 O'clock, as the bells started ringing, the most kick-A$$ fireworks show I've ever seen began. The cart was full of all sorts of different fireworks, and for ten minutes one went off after the other, slowly going from the bottom to the top of the cart. There were charges tightly packed together placed all around the cart so that it looked like someone was firing at you with an automatic rifle. There were charges that caused lots of sparkling dotes to appear above and around the cart, and ones that flew up above the cart. My favorite were "pinwheels" that spinned around and threw off sparks, and a shower of sparks that bathed the entire cart at the end of the show for something like half a minute. After the show the band and flag-dancers went back to the Piazza della Signora to perform.

This was the highlight of the trip for me. Additionally, I spent some time in the art galleries (the Uffizi was open until 11 pm which I found really helpful) and just wandering the street of the town. The day before, I had gone to Siena and San Gimigniani (SP?) which are both very beautiful hilltop towns. On the way back to Switzerland on Monday, I stopped off for a few hoursin Bologna to visit some of the churches in that town.

Some practical info
As I usually do when travelling alone, I stayed at a youth hostel, the Pensionato Pio X at Via dei Serragli 106 (055 225 044) which was the best hostel I ever stayed at. A bed in a roomy and clean (daily maid service which did everything they do at "proper" hotels) 3-bed room cost only 26,000 ITL per night (about $12), and I believe they also offer doubles and signles at rock-bottom prices. It's in a quiet neighborhood 10-15 minutes from the station on foot across the river. They don't take credit cards so if you want to reserve in advance you'll need to mail in payment.

It was hard to keep kosher for passover in bread- and pasta-rich Italy, but I found a great Chinese restaurant, Il Mandarino, on the Via Cordotta near the Piazza della Signora. It had a four course fix-priced menu (with about three different dishes to choose from for each course) for 20,000 ITL that included a beverage (1/2 L of water, 1/4 L of red wine, or tea) and all service charges. Best of all they took my Starwood Amex .

Going to Siena, I found that the train was pretty useless because it runs infrequently, slowly, and to an inconvenient station, so I took the bus (11,000 ITL o/w) even though I had bought a through rail ticket to Florence. I suggest you bite the bullet even if you have a railpass - it's not worth the hassle taking the train (I know 'cause I did it in one direction). San Gimigniani is only accessible by bus anyway.

Coming back to Switzerland, the trains were really full and between Florence and Bologna I couldn't get a seat because I had not reserved early enough in advance. The same was true on the CISAlpino when I wanted to switch to an earlier train - it was completely booked, but I was allowed on board even though it was a mandatory-reservation train, and the conductor was even nice enough to invite me to sit in first class . But the moral is that at busy times it's worthwhile to pay the 5800 Lira fee to reserve even if you're not sure that you'll actually end up taking that particular train.

(edited for spelling)

[This message has been edited by yonatan (edited 04-17-2001).]

Wow! Sounds like quite a good trip. I especially liked your description of the parade.

Thanks for the report

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I wish I were 1,000 miles away