Italian Festivals

Article Title: Calcio Storico

Festival Name: Calcio Storico

Festival Type(s): Sport - Football, Sport - Bizarre, Bizarre

Steeped in almost 500 years of tradition and described loosely as a mix between football and rugby - with a good dose of bare-knuckle boxing added to the mix - Calcio Storico is not a game for those who flinch at the site of blood.

Article Title: Orange Battle at Canrevale di Ivrea

Festival Name: Carnevale di Ivrea

Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Carnival, Party

Unlike La Tomatina, the ammunition at Italy's Carnevale di Ivrea's orange battle doesn't get squished before it is hurled in the streets. It may, however, become smushed after colliding with the helmets that keep FACES from leaking their own natural juices.

Article Title: Sampling Umbria Jazz

Festival Name: Umbria Jazz Festival

Festival Type(s): Music - Jazz

The Algiers Brass Band from New Orleans is marching down Corso Vannucci, the main street of Perugia in Italy, led by a grand marshall with purple feathers

Article Title: Siena Palio

Festival Name: Siena Palio

Festival Type(s): Sport - Equestrian, Sport - Bizarre, Traditional

The Palio is the biggest event in a Sienese year. When the local contrada's (districts) take to the track with their finest horses and race for a coveted silk banner. When horses become Gods, passions are high and the square fills with the excitement of a race for glory.

Article Title: Luminara and Historical Regatta of Saint Ranieri

Festival Name: Luminara and Historical Regatta of Saint Ranieri

Festival Type(s): Sport - Water, Traditional, Historical

Around 9:30 PM on June 16th, the eve of feast day of Saint Ranieri who is the patron saint of Pisa, the buildings along the Arno River are transformed into a fantastical fairyland setting.

Article Title: Game of the Bridge

Festival Name: Game of the Bridge

Festival Type(s): Bizarre, Re-enactments, Historical

Rival teams from different quarters of Pisa fought for symbolic possession of a bridge over the Arno River. In those times, the games often degenerated into brutal and bloody man to man fighting.

Article Title: Battle of the Oranges

Festival Name: Battle of the Oranges - Ivrea Carnival

Festival Type(s): Carnival, Bizarre, Party

That fight for liberty is recreated with the Battles of the Oranges, which substitute stones. Italy exceeds its production quota of oranges as agreed within the EEC (the European Economic Community) , so the excess needs to be destroyed (just to keep up the retail price). My co-citizens cooperate in the difficult path towards a unified Europe by helping to smash some oranges.

Article Title: Sagra di'Pinolo - The Pine Nut Festival

Festival Name: Sagra di'Pinolo - The Pine Nut Festival

Festival Type(s): Food, Food and Wine

The place was Chiesanuova, the time was mid-June, and the celebration was the Sagra di'Pinolo -- the Pine Nut festival.