The magic of fireworks

Hi Panda,

Yesterday was the last day of the Feste Vigiliane, a week of festivities that takes place every year here, in honor of the saint patron of the city. It includes a raft race in the river, a 1 km swim in the river from one bridge to another, a reconstruction of a fully operational medieval town in the main square and streets of the city center... lots of interesting crazy things, most of which, I admit, I missed. But I didn't miss the fireworks that last night concluded the festivities. If I had, I would have missed a unique experience.

First of all, I love fireworks. In my parents' house I would often run upstairs and look from the balcony whenever I heard the shots in the evening. From the position of their house you catch the fireworks in Rome and those of a big portion of the suburbs and countryside in the area. There are fireworks often. They are usually far away, small, although colorful. In the US I was a great fan of the 4th of July celebrations mostly because of the fireworks. But even there I must have been unlucky, because they would last only a few minutes, would be far away and not very colorful, even those in Chicago from the Navy Pier! I liked all of them, but I always thought that if something had been different (more colors, more variety, longer or closer) I would have enjoyed them much more.

Anyway, continuing my quest for the perfect fireworks, yesterday Uri and I walked out of the house a few minutes before the scheduled time. There were rivers of people walking steadily in one direction... so we followed them. They were headed towards the river, where supposedly they could get the best view. Now, this town is in a narrow valley. Wherever you look, between two buildings, you see a mountain in the background. At night, you only see a very dark sky up to a certain height, and if you look more closely, you notice that there are occasional lights from what look like buildings suspended in the middle of a pitch dark sky. That is the mountain. Now imagine placing the fireworks cannons on top of this mountain, so that, wherever you are in the city, you get a perfect view of whatever they shoot in the sky.

That is exactly what I saw last night. The fireworks started when we hadn't reached the river yet--like many other people still in the street with us. We looked up, and we could see each and every shot from its departure point (we couldn't see the actual cannons in the dark) to the full bloom in the sky. It was the most beautiful firework show I have seen in my life. For 25 minutes straight, there were flowers, stars, fountains, circles, twirls of all colors and kinds. Everything was so well choreographed, wonderfully arranged in the sky, with a perfect balance between repetition of the same and introduction of the new, and a specific tempo that escalated and then slowed down, for two entire cycles, until the final escalation for the grand finale. I had never seen fireworks that felt so alive, so masterfully orchestrated like a visual symphony. It was really magic.

But the real magic came right at the end, when I looked down again at the street. For an instant, nobody moved, the eyes still fixated on the mountain, everyone keeping their breath. The most impressive thing was seeing everyone's lips open in a big bright smile: Everyone was completely happy! Imagine, an entire city with their nose up in the air, a smile on their face, their hearts full of joy.

By far the best fireworks of my life.