With a around 400-year-old history, The Festa della Rificolona is one of Florence’s most valuable cultural events. Taking place at the seventh of September each year, the festival is held on the eve of the delivery of the Virgin Mary. In the seventeenth Century, peasants from the encircling countryside might come to Florence to rejoice Mary’s start and to exchange and sell their wares. The adventure become long and peasants lit their way with paper lanterns and thus a lifestyle become born; at 8:00pm on each 7th of September a procession of colorful lanterns can be seen winding via the ancient streets of Florence. While reliable festivities begin at 8pm across the Basilica Santissima Annunziata, ensure you head down to the banks of the River Arno in early night to see lanterns floating at the water. Also, don’t omit the massive marketplace that takes area in front of the basilica on the next day. In the early days of the festival peasants getting into the city had been mocked and derided via the town dwellers! In a nod to this culture, today youngsters line the procession blowing spit-wads to break the lanterns and set them alight!