Festivals in Europe: Carnival of Viareggio / Carnevale di Viareggio, Italy

Italy is home of many fantastic festivals and one of the most colorful and visited among them is the Viareggio Carnival, held at the seaside town of Viareggio, Tuscani. 

Every year the participants in the festival create papier-mâché parade floats, masks and dolls and bring life to magical creatures and many recreations of historical and present-time famous people. The celebrations take place at the different quarters and there are many festival-related events at the town's squares, bars and restaurants.

The Viareggio Carnival is a 140 years old tradition, which has become one of the most famous carnivals in Europe and gathers annualy about 1 000 000 visitors from all over the world. The town is very close to the cities of Pisa and Florence and together with the festival this makes it a perfect location for a cultural and colorful start-of-the-year vacation.

There is, of course, a papier-mâché museum, where you can see many of the best and awarded works of the participants from the previous editions of the festival.

The 2014 Viareggio Carnival will take place at the end of February and the beginning of March.

For detailed information and current festival dates you can visit the official Viareggio Carnival web-site:

http://viareggio.ilcarnevale.com/

source: Vinima @ wikipedia.org, under the Creative Commons

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Festivals in Europe: La battaglia delle arance, The battle of the oranges, Ivrea, Italy

Europe is famous with many fascinating festivals deriving from ancient traditions and events and one ofthe most memorable of all of them is the famous "La battaglia delle arance" or the Battle of the oranges.

The battle is part of the Historical Carnival of Ivrea, which is held annually at the Italian town of Ivrea in the Turino province, takes place each year to celebrate the liberation of the town from a tyrant, who has tortured the town's polulation. There are many events part of the carnival, including the remakes of the historical moments related to the town's liberation, the most important of which is the Battle of the oranges. 

The battle itself is ferociously fought between groups of people, representing the fight of the town against the army of the tyrant. 

The events of the festival begin in early January and ends at the end of February with the Battle of the oranges and the follow-up prize giving ceremony for the heroes of the battle from both fighting camps.

Information about all the events from the Historical Carnival of Ivrea can be found on the official web-site of the event:

http://www.storicocarnevaleivrea.it

source: Giò-S.p.o.t.s @ flickr.com , licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0

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Festivals in Europe: International Kite Festival, Cervia, Italy

Once a year the beautiful and calm Italian town of Cervia becomes the host of an extremely colorful and fascinating international kite festival. 

The beauty of the Italian Adriatic shore, the warm and windy weather and the thousands of kite fans make the Cervia kite festival a very positive and unusual travel destination, which you will leave going home with hundreds of photos, a big smile and the wish to come back next year for more.

Kite enthusiasts from many countries come to Cervia each year to present their one-of-a-kind complex creations, to meet their friends from other kite-construction studios and to make the festival visitors life-time fans of their beautiful and unique aerial creatures.

The festival dates, photos, videos and contact details of the festival organizors can be found on the official web-site of the event:

http://www.festivalinternazionaleaquilone.com

source: http://www.festivalinternazionaleaquilone.com

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Festivals is Europe: Cioccolatò festival in Turino, Italy

Festivals are meant to bring a pleasure for every visitor and we would like to present you one, which will most definitely be appreciated by everyone - Cioccolatò festival in Turino, Italy. 

As you have already guessed correctly - it is a festival for chocolate and it is dedicated to bringing exquisit pleasure to all visitors. Both the number of the participant chocolate factories and the number of the visitors are significant and one thing is quite certain - there are smiling people everywhere in Turino during the few days of the Cioccolatò.

The festival gathered about 500 000 visitors in 2012 and it is becoming one of the major and certainly most delicious food events and the European festival calendar. 

The festival is switching the events dates, as it was held in March, but in 2013 it will take place between the 22nd November and the 01st of December.

More information about the festival can be found on its' official website:

http://www.cioccola-to.it

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