Saturday was the traditional wine harvest ceremony in Florence and I watched the preparations at the Duomo. Two white cows were unloaded, washed and decorated with red tassels.
Then a cart carrying a pyramid of about 1500 bottles of wine was, very carefully, eased off of the back of a truck and hooked up to the cows.
The Carro Matto: The Crazy Cart
The wine was in the traditional pear-shaped bottles wrapped in raffia (a fiasco), and raffia strips had been woven between them to hold them all together. This cart is called the “Carro Matto” which translates into “Crazy Cart”.
I have to agree that it doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to do: stack up 1500 bottles of wine into a narrow pyramid and hook them up to a couple of cows, but it is tradition.
This ceremony has been taking place since the middle ages, when the people of Rufina, a small wine producing town outside of Florence, were compelled to bring their first harvest to the rulers of Florence.
The wine is blessed at the Cathedral then there is a parade through the city with music, costumes, and flag throwing. When it reaches Piazza della Signoria there is a toast to the health of the people of Florence.
I don’t know if the people of Florence get to drink the wine or not, because we were hungry and went off to dinner.
There is always something interesting to see in Florence.
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