Notte Bianca. White Night.

In Italy, the 1st of May is Labor Day, which usually involves demonstrations for better benefits or more work on the high rate of unemployment. The night before the first of may, has also become it’s own holiday over the last few years. Notte Bianca, white night, is a idiomatic expression in Italy for when you spend an entire night awake. By not going to sleep, it theoretically doesn’t get dark, hence the white night. So, since the majority of the country doesn’t have to work on the 1st of May, Notte Bianca takes place on the 30th of April. It is a big party in the city, with concerts, games, performances, and of course drinking. So, seeing as this was our last week in Italy, we didn’t have class on the 1st, and it is a big party, our group decided to have one of our traditional family dinners where we all cook. We decided to go extra big this time seeing as it was our last family dinner. We had a lot of good food. There was homemade egg rolls, bruschetta, stracchino, pesto pasta, sausage bread, cinnamon/sugar bread, breaded chicken bites, chicken fried rice, and dessert. I wanted to make a birthday cake for my celebration, since this was when I would be celebrating my birthday. I didn’t have time to make a cake, so since it was very hot that day I brought a bunch of ice cream treats instead. They were a big hit. In addition to the food, we obviously had drinks. I was given two bottles of wine to drink, and to properly celebrate turning 21. I drank both bottles, by myself.   Do not worry, I had no hangover the next morning!

Our whole group was there, so we had to split up into two rooms. There weren't enough chairs, so a lot of people had to sit on the floor.

He's my "biggest fan".

Empty!

After dinner, and after everyone was ready to head out, we all grabbed our drinks and headed out. By the time we left the apartment it was around 10:30/10:45. We then walked around to all the main piazza’s of the city, checking out all of the different activities! There were a lot of street vendors out trying to sell light up trinkets. I ended up getting light up ears for free! I was really happy!!!

It was really cool to see all of the people out in the streets, and that the people were actually Italians, not just big tour groups. We got to see some performances of hot air balloons, a dancing/singing performance that was suspended in the air, as well as an interactive area of wind chime swings! Our group managed to all stay together til about 2 am, but then we ended up getting all split up. I then ended up wandering around with 3 or 4 other people until about 4 am when we went back to one of the apartments to crash for a little bit. Because it was a big party where everyone stays up all night, the buses were running as well, except for about an hour and half between 3 and 4:30. I ended up falling asleep until about 6 am, when I woke up and realized it was light out, so I decided I could walk to the bus stop and head back home.

Packed streets and Piazzas!

One of the performances that was suspended in the air.

Me on the wind chime swings.

It was nice walking back through the city when it was empty. The sun was rising, everything was quiet, and the streets were empty. (Except for a lot of broken glass and bottles in the streets.) The only people that were out were the workers who were cleaning up the streets. I got some good pictures of the city empty. Overall the night was a big success.

The Duomo Piazza

The Uffizi Piazza