Celebrating Florence and her Patron Saint

Today is the birthday of Florence’s patron saint, John the Baptist and the anniversary of the founding of Florence.  Normally a public holiday but unfortunately not today seeing as it is a Sunday.

A huge parade took place in the historical center earlier today with the usual flag throwers and drummers all dressed in their traditional medieval costumes.  With the temperature hovering around the mid 30’s today (celsius!) they all must have been stifling under those heavy layers!

This afternoon there was the famous Calcio Storico, a historical soccer match with seemingly no rules played in Piazza Santa Croce.  The game is very rough and the players are all huge brutes with solid, rugby physiques.

As I write this, I am watching the Euro Cup’s Italy v’s England soccer game.  Still 0-0 so fingers crossed Italy manages a goal before the end!

And in about five minutes the official fireworks of San Giovanni are due to start.  This year, as new parents with our 9 month old baby Matteo in bed, we will be hoping to see a few fireworks from our windows.  We are actually living in a prime position to view the fireworks if, of course we could actually go outside and watch from the river or Piazza Poggi.

So happy San Giovanni to you all and Forza Italia!

Piazza Santa Croce transformed for the historical Soccer game.

They start the game with a shirt………

The fireworks started as I was just about to publish this post.  Emiliano and I both jumped out of our skins as the first explosion sounded like a bomb going off on our roof.  I can’t believe how loud it is and more incredibly, I can’t believe that Matteo is still asleep!   Luckily from where I am sitting, I just have to look out the window to enjoy the show but I have sent Emiliano out to take some photos and the videos.