Incredible! That's about all I can say. Today I went into the nearby port city of Fano, (15 miles south of Pesaro) for their Carnaevale. It was spectacular.
Huge floats came rolling down the street, one after the other. Some at least 50 feet high and filled with dancing people, or, at least, I think most of them were real people behind their masks. It was a twisted mix of Macy's day parade, 4th of July and Halloween. Candy rained down from the floats, and it was hailed back just as mecilessly by the exicted bystanders. Although it was a bright, sunny day everyone was bying umbrellas! It was only until they started chucking that I realized the umbrellas were turned inside out to catch the Candy. From little girls dressed up as princesses, to the full grown men dressed up as clowns, to their own parents whereing funny spike hats everyone was their in support of the parade and fighting for the candy. Although I was very succesful, even without and umbrella I had to accept a limited degree of defeat. As I reached my hand down below the crowd I saw a little shoe cover the orange flavoured candy I was after and I looked up at its owner to here a stubborn "la dulce mio!"
In addtion to the parade their were food and hat vendors everyhwere. There was also loud dance music blaring from all the floats and at all the street corners. Among the many groups, I recognized lady Gaga, basshunter, and Aretha Franklin with her "I will survive" (yes, there were a few songs in Italian songs to). My favorite part of the day were the DANCING SMURFS trailing behind the huge mushroom where they lived. Thre were also dancing tribal warriors, children, and two different bands. One was your typical marching band, but the other was pulled on a float and they played the most ridiculous instruments. One looked like and upside down pair of scissors which had jingle bells stapped on it. It was crazy.
At night they capped the day off with some fireworks, and around 8:30 we caught the 1:30 long bus back to Urbino. I can only imagine
