On Easter morning a decorated cart some nine metres high, drawn by white oxen, is brought to the square between the Duomo and the Baptistery. During the Gloria the archbishop lights a dove-shaped rocket, the colombina, which runs down a wire from the high altar, out through the open doors, and into the cart, setting off several minutes of fireworks in broad daylight. The dove then returns up the wire.
The ritual descends from the First Crusade: flints from the Holy Sepulchre, brought back by a Florentine, are still used to strike the fire. A clean flight was traditionally read as a good omen for the harvest.
No attendance figure is published.
It is a morning event, finished well before lunch, and the piazza fills early. Easter in Florence is high season regardless.
PlanningEaster Sunday morning, so it moves with Easter — and it is a morning event, over by noon.