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Where it's at
About 30 miles north of Turin, Ivrea is a small and
quiet town in Piemonte, an alpine region offering some great
ski stations like Sestriere and dotted with beautiful
valleys. After dropping in at the festival, take some time
to visit Turin, its cathedral and some of its art galleries.
The city is also full of residences belonging to its long-standing
dynasty the Savoys that are now under protection of UNESCO.
Every year Ivrea awakes one winter morning in February with
an incredible weight of expectation. Usually calm, the town
quickly becomes a cauldron of sensory overload that sweeps
along everyone gathered there for its popular annual carnival,
the Orange Festival.
History of the Orange Festival
The festival dates back to the legendary twelve century people's
revolt against Count Ranieri of Biandrate. This notorious
scoundrel had the unsavoury habit of dragging young brides-to-be
away to his bedchamber and deflowering them just before their
wedding day, claiming he had 'jus prime noctis' over all the
virgins in the town. A miller's daughter, Violetta, retaliated
against the tyrant's advances, beheaded him and showed his
head to the people of the town. This roused them into action
and a violent insurrection against Ranieri's guards took place.
This celebration of freedom has taken place every year since
with the stones replaced with locally produced oranges.
What happens at the Orange Festival?
The centre piece of the four-day celebration, which culminates
on Shrove Tuesday, is the orange fight which pits 10,000 people
on foot, dressed in colourful costumes - representing the
masses - against people standing on chariots - the aristocracy.
As the chariots charge around the streets, various orange
battles develop all over town as people divide into several
throwing teams. No-one feels guilty about chucking huge great
quantities of oranges - they're the excess from the Italian
harvest that have to be destroyed under an EU agreement. The
carnival is more than just a sea of orange juice. In among
the crowds, a young, recently married volunteer tours the
city as Violetta, the heroine of the insurrection and dressed
in white, throws candy to the spectators.
On the evening of Shrove Tuesday, scarli (big poles erected
in the middle of each district's piazza) are set on fire and
brighten Ivrea's night sky, representing the burning of the
tyrant's castle and the freedom from the city. On the Wednesday,
peace returns to Ivrea and the crowd gathers in the orange-repainted
City Hall Place to eat "polenta e merluzzo" (fish
and cornmeal), the traditional festival dish. |
