potato dumpling festival

Ok so Verona is officially like my favorite place ever. They had a city-wide holiday in honor of this guy who decided when he died he would leave the city all this money so that on the last friday before lent they could give out free Gnocci which is an Italian potato dumpling thats "bigger than an olive and smaller than a strawberry." Its absolutely delicious. They had a parade with 99 of the most impressive floats Ive ever seen. Everyone was all dressed up in medieval costumes. There were bands and majorettes. It was amazing. We drank wine and sang very loudly to "I will survive" as the float passed by. No one else seemed to know the song since it was in English so we made up for the rest of the crowd. Everyone was throwing confetti and candy and cheering. It was so exciting. We left to go eat the food of the day. On our way to the restaurant we stopped to poze with a bunch of different italian guys. They were all dancing and having a good time. Everyone seemed so carefree today. After we ate (and let me tell you what...that gnocci was something), we started to head back to the hotel. But then the macaraina (sp?) started playing and since Americans invented that historic 90's line dance, of course we stopped in the middle of the road and represented. Some italian guys caught on and joined the fun. Then they showed up with a limbo stick and we did the limbo in the middle of the parade. Everybody here was happy today, or so it seemed. Im looking forward to going to Venice on Sunday and comparing their two ideas of "Carnival."