Carnevale

One of the things we wanted to try to do this year was to go to special cultural events that we wouldn't see in the US. One of the biggest around is Carnevale and we made a point of getting to Europe's second biggest celebration (and biggest street celebration since the Carnival of Venice obviously has no streets) in Viareggio, conveniently only a 20 minute ride by train from Lucca.

We arrived in the afternoon and made our way toward the boardwalk where the festivities were taking place. Viareggio is a beach town and they completely block off the main drag along the water for the festival. Inside the fenced off area, there are many food and drink booths, souvenirs of various types, lots of confetti and silly string dealers, and tons of people in various levels of costume. You notice the wigs Stacey and I have...Ashley and Arya wanted to have fancy wigs, so we purchased some for them knowing well that they wouldn't wear them all night. Sure enough, within about 5 minutes Arya had given up on hers and 10 minutes after that, Ashley had called it quits too. So Mom and Dad got to be fancy instead!

Before the parade, people mill about and socialize, drink, and generally party. It was a nice sort of party atmosphere though. It didn't feel like a bunch of college kids in Florida at Spring Break sort of party, but more everyone partying at their own level and knowing what's appropriate crazy and when to draw the line. A great atmosphere for the kids.

The floats and parade are the major draws of this celebration. Carnival was originally a time to celebrate and get wild before the season of Lent began. You could pig out and be silly before giving things up and becoming a bit more serious in the season leading up to Easter. It's said around here that everyone needs a time where they're allowed to be crazy and this is that time. The tradition of masks and costumes, seen most famously in Venice, comes from the tradition that during Carnival, everyone from every social class is equal. It's the one time a year where every group: socioeconomic, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity can let loose with no fear of judgement. The costumes give that layer of safety and freedom that embodies that spirit of sameness through difference.

The people of Viareggio long ago decided to use the freedom of Carnival to make political comments in the safety of the festivities. They started creating parade floats that mocked the government leadership, spoke to political problems of the day, and allowed the common man an opportunity to let his thoughts be heard without fear of retribution. To this day, that tradition continues. Most of the floats have a social commentary attached to them, some purely nationalistic, some political, others simply speaking to the human condition. It's quite unusual and I was thoroughly impressed.

Beyond the symbolic nature of the floats however is their size. They are massive. You can kind of see in the pictures and video how big they are, but I don't think they quite convey the immensity. You feel dwarfed next to them. Other than the inflatable balloons at the Macy's Parade, I don't remember seeing anything approaching the size of the major floats.

We managed to get grandstand seats that gave us front row seats to the parade which lasted almost 3 hours. At the end of the parade, there was a grand finale fireworks show that ranked up there with the best I have seen. It wasn't timed to music nor did it have a story element like a Disney sort of show, but it was very well planned and had a great flow to performance. And that finale! The sort of finale where you get a ton of fireworks and think "This is it," but then there's more and it's overwhelming. But then it gets even louder and more sky-filled. But then there's even more...by the peak of the finale I don't believe there was any black sky left to be seen. The sky was pure sparks. So cool.

As seems to be our lot, the day wouldn't be complete without an adventure. The short version is that the last train for the day left during the fireworks so we had to spend a good extra hour or so searching for a taxi. We waited at the train station, walked around to search on our own, went to a gelato shop to ask for help (they were none), and eventually waited it out at the station again where a taxi eventually showed up to get us home. That's the short version. Trust me, in real life it was quite the experience.

Below is a video I threw together of the major floats from the parade. The music in the background is the main theme music from Viareggio Carnevale. It will get stuck in your head. You're welcome. After that are some stills of the floats. Speaking of the politicial nature, you should notice German prime minister Angela Merkel in a rather...compromising position (she's actually birthing little Italian prime minster Matteo Renzis), a large marionette in La Scala, and an Obama/Putin/Xi Jinping "don't blow up the world" among others. Do yourself a favor and at least check those out if not the video. You'll be impressed. I promise.

You Can't Win 'em All

Last week we returned to our regular routine after our two week excursion to Switzerland. Part of that regularity is our weekly field trip to a local Italian destination. The sort of place you wouldn't normally get to on a trip to Italy. Those little out of the way, charming towns that in a 10-day jaunt to the entirety of Italy you would probably pass by, not for want of seeing the sights, but for fear of missing something in a major destination.

One such place I've been thinking needed a visit was Montecatini Terme. It's stop on the train between Lucca and Florence so I frequently hear the name. I've also noticed out the window as we've trained by that it looks delightful and seemed to be in two parts: a lower and an upper.

After some research, it turned out the upper part is Montecatini Alto (literally Upper Montecatini), the original town. It is reached by a funicular railway and boasts one of the prime views of Tuscany. Montecatini Terme (literally Montecatini Hot Springs) is the more modern town that is home to a collection of baths and spas. A resort get away for Italians. What better place to visit when it's only a 20 minute train ride away, right? Get to see some big bath houses and springs, ride a funicular, get a great view of the valley, beautiful!

Alas, the day started off as these days seem to. I managed to misread the train schedule and got us to the train station just in time for our train to arrive...at our destination. I had switched the arrival and departure times. Oops. To make things even better, the train runs every 30 minutes...except between the train we missed and the next one when there is an inexplicable 2 hour break in service. Strike 1. So be it, an afternoon in Montecatini instead of a morning then!

We arrived just in time for lunch and found a cafe not far from the station that was actually one of the brighter spots in the day. Unlike many towns here, this downtown is quite modern and, by my now spoiled-by-living-here sensibilities, rather plain. It doesn't feel old like many other small Italian towns nor grand or unusual enough to be particularly interesting. I imagine Montecatini Alto would be more traditional and what we were hoping for. Below is one of the more interesting things we saw: a tree that had eaten a taxi sign.

Our first stop was to be a large public bath/spa area in the middle of town. I had seen some pictures online of cool old looking fountains and columns and water flowing with a general "that would be cool to check out" look to it. Upon finding it however, we found it was fenced up and closed for the season. Seems strange to me that a nice warm spa would be closed for the cool months, but I digress. So strike 2. The pictures show all we could see. Looks cool, but that's as close as we could get and nothing was going on.

The park in which the spa is located however offered a bit of win though. It's a quite expansive park with a lot of fields and nice paths to meander. Sadly no playground for the kids, but a very cool forested area that we spent a good half hour exploring and playing Predator & Prey (also called Eagle Eye) and other games you normally only get to play at camp. Foul tip, still Strike 2.

Reenergized by the park, we made our way toward the funicular to enjoy that ride and to check out the view from above. This had been one of the major selling points for the excitement of the day. I mean, who doesn't love a funicular ride!? (I had been selling it the line "Dad puts the "fun" in funicular!) With little difficulty we made our way half way across town on foot, with only a bit of complaining, to the station...only to discover that it and the railway itself are closed for renovation until March. Strike 3.

Figuring the day would be a complete loss, we came across Termeland (no joke) on our walk back to the station. Termeland, as you might imagine, is a (very feeble) attempt at conjuring a Disneyland like place in the middle of this small town. It consisted of a large playground, a jumpy house, a small fun house, and a ball pit along with a very small bumper car track and a few small games. Imagine a glorified elementary school PTA carnival and you're on the right track. However, after a day full of "almost fun" and "should've been cool", it was a welcome escape for the girls so we paid the 5 Euro fee and they ran around for a bit before our walk back to the train (and mandatory stop for gelato). Oh, and by the by, for those who, like me before I moved here, don't know, that character Arya is next to is not called Mickey Mouse here. He's known as Topolino. And for those who are curious yes, Minnie is Topolina. And because I know you'll ask, Donald is Paperino, Daisy is Paperina, Goofy is Pippo, and Pluto is...well...Pluto.

I believe this is the first one of these trips that has really fallen quite so flat. I'm not sure if my research wasn't strong enough before going or if we just had bad luck. The good news is, even in the failure of the original objectives, we still found a way to have a good time. Guess I call that a win after all.

Northern Italy and Switzerland: Lucerne and Iglu Dorf

(Note from Dad: I realized I uploaded the videos in Ashley's post about Zermatt in the wrong format so they probably didn't show very well. I've updated them so go check them out! Oh, and it seems the videos don't like to play on mobile devices so if you'd like to watch them, you'll need to be on a computer)

We left Zermatt and we went to Lucerne on the Glacier Express. That is a train where you look out the window because Mommy and Dada say there's a pretty view. It took five hours and we got to have a three course meal.

When we got there we walked over a bridge and down a couple streets to our apartment. The next day we went to the Transportation Museum. It sounds boring, but it's not. On our walk there we played at a park and we saw the harbor and a stone carving of a lion with an ouchy in his back.

When we arrived there, I saw a poster of some...

that's right... PANDAS!

AND this really big wheel that is used to dig tunnels that we recognized from a challenge on the Amazing Race.

We got to interact with stuff like peddling boats, marble mazes and riding old fashioned bicycles. We even watched Ashley and Dad do a crash test.

 Here's a video of our marble activity where we had to get a marble from one side to another using paper and wood blocks.

Also at the museum we did a chocolate adventure where we learned how chocolate is produced and got some free chocolate - YEAH! We also saw a video about PANDAS (as seen on the poster), and went to a planetarium because we're learning about the solar system right now in SCIENCE (spoken in your best Bill Nye voice).

On the way home it was a blizzard! Well not really, but it snowed like Elsa made it snow. We stopped by the wooden bridge and walked across. It was an old bridge that was made of wood. Then when crossed the bridge we got dinner and hot chocolate after.

The next day we took a train to Engelberg. We did a little skiing there. It was very very powdery and LOTS of snow. There was a lift that was shaped as a T and you grabbed hold of it and at the end you had to push it off of you and ski down the little hill and it was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, hard.

Then we went to our Iglu Dorf. Yes, that's right we stayed in an IGLOO!

We walked around to the many rooms and peeked in and saw many sculptures on the wall like Falcor (in our room), mushrooms, Rapunzel's castle, Belle's rose, and we got to see a ice sculpture of Rapunzel's chameleon, Pascal.

At the Iglu we ate supper, then we went to the hot tub. It was quite an adventure. They told us to bring flip flops and bathing suit, which we did, and on the way to the hot tub we had to run through very deep snow and it was like someone was building an ice skating rink and you fell in it as they were freezing it. It was really, really COLD.

Here's a video Daddy took. It's a little dark, but you should watch it anyway.

After the hot tub, we went to bed. Here is a picture of me in my sleeping bag.

The sleeping bag was warm but going to the bathroom was cold. So when you needed to use the toilet you thought, "Oh, do I really have to go?" Overall, I had a fun time!

After breakfast that morning we did a little more skiing, then went back to our apartment and slept the night snuggled in our warm beds. They next morning we flew home.