What Italian Easter tradition features a decorated wagon exploding outside Florence’s Duomo?

The Italian Easter tradition featuring a decorated wagon exploding outside Florence’s Duomo is the Scoppio del Carro.

The name means “explosion of the cart.” On Easter Sunday, a large, elaborately decorated wagon is drawn through Florence and placed between the Baptistery and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. A dove-shaped rocket, the colombina, travels along a wire from the cathedral to ignite fireworks inside the wagon.

The ceremony is traditionally associated with a successful ignition and the hope of a good harvest. Its story is linked to Pazzino de’ Pazzi, a Florentine knight said to have received sacred stones after the First Crusade, although the present ceremony developed over later centuries.

The Scoppio del Carro combines religious ritual, civic pageantry, fireworks, and local legend. The cart itself is rebuilt or maintained as a major Florentine ceremonial object, making the custom much more specific than ordinary Easter fireworks.