They say travel changes you, makes you more aware of the world around you and increases your desire to protect it. I consider myself a pretty fierce earth advocate and some of what we see while traveling is troubling to me. Americans are by no means perfect environmental stewards but it is evident that we are trying harder than some to preserve our world. In that spirit I was utterly disgusted to see selfie takers in Italy with huge bags of paper confetti throwing handfuls of it in the air at every possible location to snap a picture with themselves in the middle of the litter bomb. If I didn’t see them do it, I saw evidence of it everywhere as the holidays roared on. The beach, parks, other peoples’ front yards, the streets…it seemed like it was everywhere and I was horrified. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved that happy snapshot, but there was no way I was gonna do it!

BUT, then we went to the Il Carnevale dei Fantaveico in Imola, Italy on February 23, 2020 and my eco scrooge heart grew ten sizes bigger. We love to seek out odd little local festivals and this one was a happy coincidence. We were in Bologna and heard of this festival in the neighboring town so we wanted to check it out. It is a parade that starts at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari Racetrack and goes to the city center with vehicles that can only be made from assembling parts of bicycles or old vehicles. None may produce pollution so they are pedaled, pushed, wind powered, solar or electric powered. Some successfully, some less so. It ends with an award ceremony and party in the city center, the large Piazza Matteotti that becomes filled with people and more confetti than I have ever seen. The theme for the year was Mother Earth, ironically. The floats and parade were fun for sure, but it was the families playing with the confetti in the wind and sunlight that stole the show for me.

The pure joy that these kids, from babies to what must have been centenarians, myself included exhibited with the tossing of, dancing in, warring with, getting covered in, recycling of, hoarding of confetti was exquisitely infectious and I could not stop smiling, laughing and taking pictures. This is best told in some of those pictures.

Even the fur babies got in on the act.

Before and After…I hope they have a system for cleaning this up!

Yup, I now smile when I see evidence of confetti use. I can no longer deny its value as a simple way to bring pure joy. Thank you princesses, princes and batman!