The Battle of the Oranges!

Today was great.  Grace, a friend of mine and I went to see the famous Battle of the Oranges.  It was warm and sunny, the perfect day for our little excursion, along with 50,000 others!  It was standing room only on the train out to Ivrea, an hour away.  The city was packed with bobbing red heads as we were told to wear red hats to avoid being hit.  Ivrea is a lovely place at the foot of the mountains and straddling the Dora river.  The streets were lines with stands selling red apparel, sausages, beer, mulled wine and other goodies.  People were dressed in medieval costumes.  The walls of the buildings along the "parade route" were covered in protective tarps and netting hung from poles erected all around the "battle fields".  And everywhere there were orange crates stacked up six feet high.  There were about a dozen horse-drawn carts carrying men and women dressed in "armor" to represent soldiers who parade up and down the streets, stopping in various squares where they were attacked by people representing the uprising peasants.  Spectators stood behind the netting that somewhat protects them from flying oranges, though not the juice that squirts everywhere and smells glorious.  We parked ourselves in a large square where one of the biggest battles takes place and waited for the carts to arrive.  The participants are all members of a number of teams that are more like clubs because the  members, (who pay a huge fee to join), meet all year long using the two week carnival as an excuse to get together and party.  The teams wear costumes and have silly names like "Defenders of the neighborhood" and "Barons of the Castle".  Many are dressed as Celts with kilts and shaved heads and big fake tattoos.  They are mostly men with way too much testosterone.  We saw bloody noses and black eyes and cuts on heads and faces.  It was like a brutal orange snowball fight.  Very cool.  Pictures coming up!  xxoo me