Viareggio

Posh and I slept in on this beautifully warm and bright Sunday and lazily walked over to the train station to take a 1.5 hour train ride to the beach town of Viareggio for the last day of their renowned Carnevale. We arrived around 5:00pm and had no idea what to expect--or, for that matter, whether anything would still be happening--and as we wandered around we feared for the worst since more people seemed to be leaving than coming. Then as we faced where we thought the sea would be, Posh pointed at a floating shark and exclaimed that that must be where the beach is. She was really hoping to see the water and sand.

Our fears were thankfully put to rest when we saw and heard thousands of people in a fenced-off portion along the beach, most of whom were in costume and all of whom looked to be having a great time. It was so amusing to find entire families or groups of friends dressed up in some sort of theme, ranging from a young family of matching furry animals to a group of teen smurfs to some adult teletubbies. Then there were the odd male cross-dressers, the most common being guys dressed in soccer jerseys and matching tutus.

The floats were incredible. While Venice left me disappointed, Viareggio blew my expectations out of the water (pun intended) and in some respects exceeded the quality of Disneyland parades (WTML, you ask?! I KNOW!!!). They were intricate, they were huge, most held over 50 people each (all in costume and dancing), and Europop dance music was blasting! I moved along to the tunes of Vasco Rossi, David Guetta, and Duck Sauce (among others) and watched as people of all generations partied it up Italian-style. There was even a float with a giant Barack Obama dressed in a yellow suit with matching top hat and, get this, he has his own dance song...and people knew the lyrics! (Unfortunately his float kept eluding me--ragazze, it was my unicorn of the evening--and I can't find this song online.)

We watched the sunset on the beach for only a few minutes as the authorities were moving everyone from the area and then we sped-walked back to the train station in our efforts to go home. Forty-five minutes, huge crowds, and several futile lines later, we had our tickets and went home. All in all, not a bad way to end the week.

Today's word of the day is tramonto, or "sunset". We're definitely coming back to Viareggio in the summer.