Carnival in Viraggio

My first trip out of Florence was this past Sunday. The school arranged a day trip to a small town outside Pisa called Viraggio who hosts Carnival for the whole month before Lent. Venice is the most popular place for Carnival so most people go there, but Viraggio does basically the same thing but on a smaller scale. For those who aren't familiar with Carnival, it's basically a combination of Mardi Gras and Halloween and lasts a whole month, with parties each weekend, usually with costumes, floats, parades, and general madness. Even in Florence I saw a ton of people dressed up in masks and incredible outfits walking around the streets throwing confetti.
To get to Viraggio we took the train from the S.M.N. station (Santa Maria Novella) which is right behind the church, and on the opposite side of town from where I live. The ride was about an hour and a half and super easy. When we arrived my roommate Christy and my friend LJ explored the main street of town and found a little pizzaria where I had probably the best pizza I've had since being in Italy. Florence isn't particularly known for their pizza, so this place was a GREAT pick. After some food and lots of wine we headed over to the main square where the festival was going on. It was the most amazing thing to walk around and see costumes in Italy. They are nothing like Halloween costumes in the States. People with crazy make-up, men wearing full on zebra print onesies, huge purple afros, the most intricate masks I've ever seen, feathers, sequins--- it was literally aesthetic overload. The town is right on the beach too, so to have all the floats and people going by against the background of the Mediterranean was incredible. Nothing topped the floats in the parade though. These floats were straight out of Alice and Wonderland and sort of warped and creepy but completely entrancing at the same time. They were probably close to 5 stories high and it was nothing like a parade in America. There were no police or barricades stopping you from joining in and getting so close to the floats you could basically climb on. The whole event was so much fun and something I'm so glad I didn't miss out on. It was definitely a great day trip!
The only bad part was taking an hour and a half train ride back that was so packed I thought the train would break in half! Luckily we made it back to Florence in one piece--- and in plenty of time to catch the Superbowl, which started as 12:30 am here!
Ciao for now :)