Italy Advisor

Discovering Italy in springtime, discovering the funniest tradition and the best places to visit! for example,Venice has a lovely tradition of coffee shops called le Botteghe del Caffè. You can trace back up to 1759 when almost 206 coffe shops ruled! Too many and  the Republic stopped the spread of them making a ban!

The survivors are in Saint Mark Square, and the most famous had the Venezia Trionfante (Triumphant Venice) as sign! It has been built in 1720 by Floriano Francescani, and people called it the Floriàn. Today it is open: go there for a coffee to taste in the same rooms where  Giacomo Casanova, Wolfgang Goethe, Lord Byron and George Sand went!

Let’s expore all the less known but lovely fairs and celebration that take place in Italy!

It will be nice also to go and celebrate Rome‘s birthday: the date of Rome’s founding (in 753BC) is on April 21 so if you’re in Rome, check it out for festivals, concerts, and special events. Fireworks display will be over the Tiber River and also you can cross gladiator shows around the forum area.

For funny fairs, we can advice the Palio della Rana, (golden frog race), on the Sunday after Easter in the town of Fermignano located in the beautiful Marche region. The race with frogs is with the animals put in tiny wheelbarrows. The day before the race,  a pageant in historical costume and a fireworks show take place in Fermingnano.

Another funny one is The Race of the Ring, La Corsa all’anello, held in Narni in the Umbria region. The celebration is held the last week of April, that is a medieval jousting competition, with three horsemen trying to snare rings.

San Biagio, the patron saint of Avetrana in southern Puglia, is celebrated with a 2-day festival starting from April 28. You will enjoy bands, food, street fair, and a religious procession.

In Caresana (Piedmont region) we have Saint George’s Day, the patron saint of farmworkers, on April 23, celebrated with the Palio dei Buoi. It is a parade of floats pulled by oxen.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Events in Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.