Carnival Holiday in Italy

Every year during the week leading to Lent, the peaceful, relaxed air of the northern Italian town of Ivrea is filled with the cries of battle and nearly a million flying, smashing oranges.As one story has it, the orange-throwing represents an episode when the town’s feudal lords gave pots of beans to the poor as charity, only to have their meager offering thrown back at them. Another, juicier story tells of the townspeople’s incitement to rebellion when an Ivrean nobleman, the Marquis Ranieri d...

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• Visit Piedmont
• What to see Piedmont

If you have a chance, you must visit Venice during their annual Carnival and have your photo taken with these interesting carnival characters. The Venetian Carnival, or Carnevale, is Venice's response to the Mardi Gras.For ten days before Lent each winter, tourists throng the city to join in the merry-making and participate in the equally many pageants, commedia dell'arte, concerts and masked balls... right until Shrove Tuesday where every merry-making activity seems to come to a sudden halt. Ca...

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• Visit Veneto
• What to see Veneto