Carnival in Italy

Special page about Italy you can find here and here
This page is in construction so I please you to visit it later for more new info.

There are 2 great carnival feasts in the world, Brazilian and Venetian. Everybody knows about them and if you think to visit a carnival you think only about this two.

Not all of you know every town and village in Italy has it's own carnival and some of them are very interesting too.

The most popular is the Orange Battle in Ivrea. The carts with assailants full of oranges enter in the town to conquest it and the defenders have to drive them back.

You can participate on this spectacle when you buy oranges, but you have to know, the battle can provoke real wounds. That is why assailants have helmets on the heads, there are emergency-cars in the near streets and all visitors are behind the columns. But not only. Your clothes can be damaged by the orange-paste that arrives sometimes till your knees...

There are other interesting places to visit.

In Fano during the carnival-manifestation come all visitors with umbrella. They open and turn them to catch sweets that fall from the window on their heads.

Liguria is faithful to their car-sculptures and scenes. More popular is the procession of flower-sculptures that takes place some weeks before carnival, but it's beautiful to see too.

Interesting tradition can you find in Sardenia. The masks are horrible here, the dancers are not so numerous and they dress goat-hides and bells. Nobody knows where comes this usage from, so old is it.

Did you know that "carnival" comes from "carne"-"meat" and means last meal with meat before Great fast?