On New Year’s Day, Sfilata dei Canottieri is a traditional parade of boats on the Arno. Il Carnevale di Viareggio, Florence’s carnival, is a big and brash affair featuring enormous, elaborately designed floats, often satirising political figures. Children dress up and parade with their parents in the piazzas and along lungarno Amerigo Vespucci (four Sundays up to Shrove Tuesday, 28 Feb 2006).

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