Coriandoli

I thought I'd post a few photos of the confetti (called coriandoli in Italian) that the wind has been swirling around the city for the past several weeks. The tiny circles of colorful paper appear every year during the carnevale period, which follows the Christmas holidays and lasts until Shrove Tuesday (today).

Florence doesn't do Carnival like Venice or the nearby Viareggio. In keeping with the typical Florentine sense of restraint, the celebrating is low-key, with small gestures showing up around the city: masks and curly-q streamers decorating shop windows...baskets of powdered sugar-dusted cenci piled high in the bakeries...dashes of color from the coriandoli brightening up the stone paving. Dressed in princess outfits, animal costumes, funny hats and wigs, children dash through the streets and gather in the piazzas to toss confetti, spray silly string and attack each other with the messy (but oh-so-fun-when-you're-eight) spray foam. There's also an internationally-themed parade on the Sunday before Shrove Tuesday, which ensures that we will continue to find coriandoli for weeks to come!

And so the months fly past, marked by strings of holidays and celebrations. We've gone from Christmas to New Year's to Epiphany, then moved through the Carnival period and now into Lent, in what feels like the blink of an eye. It's hard to believe that spring is due to arrive next month, when the confetti will be replaced by little green seed pods floating down from the trees. There's always something new to look forward to...

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{Please click here & here to read some of my past Arzigogolare entries about the carnevale period.}