Travel Italy: Vacation Packages, Tips, Tours of Italy

For chocolate lovers who are visiting Piedmont this week, CioccolaTO’ is an event to not be missed.

From Friday, February 22 through Sunday, March 2, this annual chocolate festival held in Turin will feature endless tastings, laboratories with master pastry chefs of international renown, visits to chocolate factories, shows and also even chocolate classes.

CioccolaTÒ 2008 is not only a celebration of the palate, it is also many other activities, including design (Turin is World Design Capital for 2008), music, literature and theatrical presentations, all based on the theme of cocoa. Details of the event at http://www.cioccola-to.com/english/.
When: from February 22 to Sunday, March 2;
Where: Turin.

Among the many grape and wine festivals taking place in the wine-growing regions of Italy, in this late September, we suggest the followings (listed by region).

- Tuscany
“Festa dell’Uva” (grape feast) in Impruneta (Sept 30).

- Piedmont
“Festa del Vino e del Monferrato” (wine feast) in Casale Monferrato (Sept 21-23).
Wine Feast in Nichelino, surroundings of Turin, (Sept 19 through 23);

- Veneto and Friuli
“Festa dell’Uva” (”Grape Feast”) in Conegliano (September 23).
Gambellara Wine Festival, in Gambellara (September 21-23; info ph/fax: 0444/444183, stradadelrecioto@libero.it)

- Liguria
“Festa dell’uva e del vino” in Vezzano Ligure (September 22-23).
Sagra dell’Uva in Vernazza (Cinque Terre) (September 30)

- Aosta Valley
‘Feta di Resen’ in Chambave (September 23-30). Major event for tasting of mountain wines. (Details)

- Emilia-Romagna
Wine Feast in Castello di Gropparello (September 23 and 30). (Details)
“Sagra Provinciale dell’Uva” in Riolo Terme (September 20 through 23)

From September to December the truffle season is underway. A multitude of fairs and festivals take place across the country, especially in what are the most prominent areas for the truffle-hunting: Piedmont, Tuscany, Umbria, and Marches.

In Piedmont, in Alba – the most known area for white truffle, the big local truffle fair (77th Alba White Truffle International Festival) kicks off on the last weekend of September and is held every weekend throughout October.

However, if you are looking for less touristy places, villages throughout the Monferrato and Langhe areas in Piedmont, offer you smaller truffle fairs and festivals with their typical large variety of truffle dishes and delicacies, on weekends throughout October and November.
We’ll cover that in a lot more detail in the upcoming weeks.

- See Alba interactive map.

Friday, March 2 kicked off the 2007 edition of CioccolaTO’, in Turin.

This chocolate festival, which runs through March 11, features endless tastings, visits to chocolate factories, shows and also even chocolate classes for those willing to improve their knowledge on this theme.

Piazza Vittorio Veneto, the largest square in Europe, one of the most beautiful spots in the city and the historic cafes are the venues for the event. See the program

The closing days of Carnival, in the town of Ivrea, Piedmont, are celebrated with a three day orange-fight involving the whole town.

The orange fights are held between teams of orange throwers on foot, representing the masses, and hooded people standing on carts drawn by horses in gay trappings, the masters’ henchmen.
Battles take place in the squares all over town, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday running up to the grand finale on Shrove Tuesday.

See Ivrea (Piedmont) on the (interactive map).