Lost in Translation: Festa della Donna

Yesterday was the day of Carnevale in Italy, which is very similar to a Mardi Gras type of celebration. I read that children throw confetti on each other, which I found to be true because there has been confetti all over the streets for the last week; I also witnessed children doing that yesterday. I guess the best place to celebrate Carnevale in Italy is in Venice, that is where they make the best masks. One of the celebrations is known as Festa della Donna, which translates literally to "party of the woman," but is known as International Women's Day. In Italy, on this day, men give the women in their lives yellow mimosa flowers to let them know they are appreciated. Read more about Carnevale and Festa della Donna.

The yellow flowers and pasties of course

Yesterday before practice, Lynnea and I went out searching for masks to wear, and realized that people were buying costumes, like Halloween costumes, so after talking to some Italian friends we decided to buy some costumes and wear them that night. At practice our coach gave us little yellow flowers, and their were of course pasties, anything for them to bring pasties to practice.
After practice we got ready for dinner, the team went to eat before going to Unico (the "disco" in Fondi). After we ate, we went to a pub to see some people the girls know, and everyone was in costumes, it really was like halloween. Some people were in full out costumes that you would find in stores in America, and others had traditional masks from Venice; believe me, if I would have had time to get a mask, I would have gone all out and found a traditional one, but we were limited with time and stores.

Our Carnevale costumes....I went blonde!!

Later we headed to Unico, and let me just say, it was PACKED with people in all different types of costumes, and people of all ages. One of the 15 or 16 year olds that practices with us was there with her friends...yeah I don't know what the age limit is, but this seems to be normal. I'm pretty sure EVERYONE was in a costume! There were a lot of Kobe's and I think a couple LaBron's; a couple football players, one girl in an American flag outfit, and a lot of men dressed as girls. It was really cool to see all the different costumes and masks.