The same group of people who toured Germany a year ago, took a much shorter (although definitely fun) road trip over the weekend. We drove to Geneva the first night & stayed with a BFA family near there. We did take a short trip into Geneva our first evening. We had a cold, but fun walk through the area right on the lake. Unfortunately I don't really have any pictures from that night, but I do have a picture of Madeline! 
Remember her? She came on this trip as well, although this time she had an orange ribbon securing her to the front of our car in honor of the upcoming orange battle. 
This is the view that met us when we woke up in the morning! That is Geneva & the lake & then the alps - so beautiful! 
This hill (which probably has a name, but I don't know it) was right beside us where we were staying. 
Here are Rachel & Julia in the backseat of the car on the way to Italy. I don't have a picture of it, yet, but we had team t-shirts again! 
The weather cooperated & we had a beautiful drive through the alps! We even got to see the highest point in the alps, called Mont Blanc. 
Here we are for a quick stop to enjoy the alps - I think it gives a good idea of just how massive the Alps really are. 
Here are Rachel & Madeline on the way to the orange battle. Supposedly if you wear red, you don't get hit, but we quickly found out that that is a lie! 
Here is the town of Ivrea all decked out & ready for battle! 
And here comes one of the wagons full of "royals". A quick stop to explain the Orange festival. Apparantly, a long time ago, there was an evil landowner who thought it was his right to "borrow" the women the night before their wedding. As the story goes, one beautiful miller's daughter decided this was not how it was going to work & when he captured her, she cut off his head. This caused the townspeople to rise up & riot against the royals. A celebration & parade begain in commemoration of this event that happened 200 years ago. During the war years, some women started throwing oranges at the men who were in this parade to try & get their attention & viola! We have the orange festival as it is known today. How this works is apparantly, the citizens of Ivrea form teams somehow each year & take turns being the "royals" riding in the wagons, because although they get to wear a bit of protection, they are the target being pelted at over & over & over. At 2:15 on Sunday, Monday, & Tuesday the battle begins & the royal wagons ride through a square & wage battle with the townspeople teams in that square. The wagons then move on to another square & so on for quite a while. 
Before the orange battle begins they still have the commemoration parade complete with the "miller's daughter" who rides through town in a carriage & throws flowers to the people. This is a picture of some of the children involved in the pagentry. 
And a boy dressed for the occasion. 
Here are the guards to watch over the miller's daughter I guess. 
And here is the miller's daughter (not the real one, obviously, because this happened 200 years ago) 
And a man dressed up for the parade. 
We found a great spot to stand to watch all the pre-fight ceremonies. Don't worry we didn't stay here for the entire time! Once the battle started we moved out from behind the netting. 
Here is a picture of the square before the battle began. 
There were quite a few horses around before the battle began (they were part of the parade). Notice the crates of oranges behind the horse. Don't worry many of the oranges were getting moldy. 
And so it begins... 
And continues... We stayed around for an hour, before the rain & cold drove us off to find a coffee shop. But not before we logged some slight personal injuries (nothing long-standing, much to Micah's chagrin): Julia - Deflected 2 oranges off her hand while protecting her face (thankfully she was wearing leather gloves) Micah - Took a couple of oranges in the leg, one in the ear Rachel - One in the leg, one on the shoulder Heather - One in the fingers, one just below the collarbone, one in the shoulder If this video works, it should give you a good idea of what the orange festival is like:
That night, we stayed at a hostel that really is a canoe club & so, since it was made to be lived in during the summer months wasn't overly appealing. For this reason, we headed to Torino to walk around & eat dinner. We had some really good Italian food & really enjoyed the sights of Torino (again, I have no pictures) in spite of the cold. We had an okay night of sleep in the hostel & then headed home the next morning. We had planned to do a bit of sightseeing in one of the towns on the way home, but it was either snowing or raining the entire way back, so we decided to stay in the warm car! Now that this group has had two trips, we've decided this may have to be an annual occurence & we are already making plans for next years trip! | 
