Well, here’s Easter in Florence: Belts! Handbags! T-shirts! Sunglasses!  I guess if you’re in for piety, Firenze is not the place to spend your holy week.  The Pope was on TV giving his blessings (one channel only) so I headed down to the Duomo expecting to see throngs of worshipers struggling for a view of Il Papa on some giant screen, with the sounds of the massive organ filtering out from the 600-year old cathedral.  In fact, last night, in one of our many Felliniesque moments here, as we were walking around the trendy restaurant district (stopping off for our favorite nocciola (nut-flavored) ice cream at a famous gelato shop), we ran into a procession of white-robed nuns and priests, chanting and carrying a torch.  Behind them were believers in regular dress, carrying sticks with plastic cups skewered onto them.  (Anyone who can figure out what this was for gets a special prize!)   As the faithful assembled on the steps of the monastery, a small crowd of onlookers gathered across the narrow alley in front of a cafe, which in response to a plea by one of the nuns turned down the volume on the heavy metal music.  The singing began in earnest, interrupted only by a constant stream of motorcycles, buses and Mercedes sedans zipping down the alley, leaving several inches to spare.  (We have found that the drivers in Florence are much more considerate than elsewhere in Italy.  You don’t have to worry as much about getting run over when you’re on the sidewalk, and once we even saw a car stop for someone in a crosswalk.)  So, to get back to the point, that was the extent of the religious observance we’ve seen.  Today there were indeed throngs of tourists in the square around the Duomo, but none of them looked the least bit interested in attending a mass, and the sounds of organ pipes were nowhere to be heard.  However, to my profound amazement, all the cafes were open, street markets were in full swing, and buses were running on a regular schedule.  I caught the first one home.

P.S.  See our Florence photos here.