Last tuesday was the best school field trip of my life! USAC took us to Ivrea for carnevale there. The city itself is similar to Sienna and many other smaller cities in Italy; it is broken up into smaller districts or neighborhoods that are each symbolized by a certain animal or object. For instance in Ivrea there was the scorpion district, the chessmen, the devils, the crows, etc. For those of you who don't know what Carnevale di Ivrea is here are a few photos just so you can get the feel for it.
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| The streets of Ivrea |
This was the lady that helped Joe and I get our outfits. Joe decided to fight for the Devils or in Italian "
diavoli", and I fought for the "I Tuchini del Borghetto". Our location was a little bit special because not only did we have a piazza like all of the other teams, but leading into our piazza was a bridge that allowed us to get right up against the carriages and throw oranges at a very close range. This was where we spent most of our time, and was an absolute blast!!
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| The Bridge and entrance into Rione Del Borghetto |
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| Got my picture at our clubs entrance |
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| Our teams piazza |
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| My main throwing partner for the day; the one and only Cierra Anderson |
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| More of my American teammates! Shout out to the girls for going all in with us!! |
This was the first carriage that came through our piazza. This was just
around 2:30 pm, and we continued to have carriages one after another for
the next 3 hours. Each carriage would travel across the bridge
(stopping once, and sometimes twice if it was a very good battle, and
then travel into our piazza and stop there as well. Because we were not paying players in the carnevale, we were not allowed to grab the oranges straight off of the crates, but rather we had to pick them up off of the ground.
As you can see, there were plenty of oranges on the ground to pick up, and there was never a shortage of oranges to launch at the next carriage that was coming by!
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| Me kissing my favorite orange of the day |
When we first started we were a bit timid (standing in the back and throwing oranges at long range) however, we quickly realized that although it seems illogical, the closer you are to carriage, the less you actually get hit at a dangerous angel. AT A DANGEROUS ANGEL is the key part. Of course if you get right up against the cart which we spent most of our day doing, you would get oranges raining down on your head, but they weren't hitting you in the eye or face anymore.
I am not sure why, but an orange tastes better after it has been chucked
off of a carriage, hit someone in the face, you pick it up off of the
ground, wipe it off, and eat it!
Side note; there is officially only one way to properly drink Vin Brule' at a orange throwing fight.
1. Rip the top of the orange off
2. Suck the juices out of the orange (if you are super lucky it will be a blood orange)
3. Create a large whole inside of the orange
4. Pour Vin Brule' into the orange and drink the Vin Brule' while squeezing the orange at the same time!
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| Our Italian friends |
Overall this experience was an absolutely awesome experience. I found it very interesting that something like this would never work in America, but is so popular in Italy. To put it in perspective; 140+ people were taken to the hospital just on Sunday alone. It was interesting to me because if something like this was to happen in America everyone would have to sign a waiver, only a certain number of people would be allowed to play at the same time. It ironically is a good representation to me on the differences between American and Italian society.
When we first started we were a bit timid (standing in the back and throwing oranges at long range) however, we quickly realized that although it seems illogical, the closer you are to carriage, the less you actually get hit at a dangerous angel. AT A DANGEROUS ANGEL is the key part. Of course if you get right up against the cart which we spent most of our day doing, you would get oranges raining down on your head, but they weren't hitting you in the eye or face anymore.
This was the first carriage that came through our piazza. This was just
around 2:30 pm, and we continued to have carriages one after another for
the next 3 hours. Each carriage would travel across the bridge
(stopping once, and sometimes twice if it was a very good battle, and
then travel into our piazza and stop there as well. Because we were not paying players in the carnevale, we were not allowed to grab the oranges straight off of the crates, but rather we had to pick them up off of the ground. 
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