White Night in Florence

As I write this the Notte Bianca in Florence is well underway.  Translated, the White Night is when all the shops are open until midnight and there are concerts being held in most of the piazzas until the wee early hours.  Apart from the concerts, all the museums are also open to midnight and the entry is free.  It all finishes at 6am in Palazzo Vecchio where you can enjoy a cappuccino and brioche with the mayor Matteo Renzi.

There are some great things planned for this evening, from performances, light installations, music, dance and theatre that will be sure to entertain the city on the longest Florentine night of the year.

The theme for this year is ‘The Lights of the City’ and the element of  ‘White’ will be the lights uniting each of the events.  All the participants from the artists, musicians and performers will be dressed in white and the bridges will be lit in a bright white light too.

There are also many events for children apparently.  There is a giant pic-nic in Piazza Pitti and tonight at 6pm, there were 600 children singing Strauss in Piazza Santa Croce but any later than that is bed time isn’t it?   Well not for Italian children who stay up much, much later than I was ever allowed.  I guess that luckily for these children (and their parents) tomorrow is a public holiday.

We have a concert here in Piazza Poggi at the end of our street tonight and I can feel our windows vibrating now from the music.  It is 11pm and the main concert has just started.  Not that I’m a party pooper, it’s just that with a 7 month old baby in the house, my sleep is precious and any threat to Matteo’s or my sleep makes me a little nervous.  We are actually getting our new double glazed windows installed next week.  If it wasn’t for all the rain we’ve been having they would have already been up and I wouldn’t have Matteo lying next to me in bed right now.  Between the nightclub that he shares his bedroom wall with and the concert outside, I’m not sure which room in the house is quieter tonight.

Emiliano has gone out to enjoy Florence with his friends tonight so I have given him strict instructions to take some photos that I can share them here on the blog.

So on that note, I am going to try to get some sleep and hopefully will have some photos to post tomorrow.

Buona Notte Bianca!

Notte Bianca Firenze 2012