New Year in Italy

The festive period in Italy begins with the preparation for the Catholic Christmas and ends with Epiphany, which Catholics celebrate on January 6. New Year's Italy will meet you with elegant streets of cities, decorated with garlands and a myriad of bright lights, festive concerts and costumed processions, traditional winter fairs and sales.

Which city is better to celebrate the New Year in Italy? Variants weight: in Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples, Milan have their attractions, each of these cities in its own way attractive. You can choose any one city, or you can go on a sightseeing tour of Italian cities. But, of course, you still have to choose the only city in which you will spend New Year's Eve. To fully experience how the New Year is celebrated in Italy, it is worth spending a couple of weeks in the country, arriving just before Christmas and leaving after the New Year.

In whatever Italian city you meet the New Year, you should definitely try traditional Italian Christmas dishes. Italians generously set the festive table. Do not hesitate to try smoked salmon,roast eel, turkey, capelletti (an analogue of our dumplings), sausages from pigskin and lentils. By the way, lentils symbolize wealth, so the more lentils you eat, the better.

No less diverse and Italian Christmas pastries. It's just not a crime to evaluate panthefort di Siena (traditional Tuscan pie with dried fruits, nuts and spices), almond cakes, panetton (Milanese Christmas pie made from soft dough with raisins and candied fruits), torrone (similarity of halva from raisins, almonds, honey and sugar), pandora ("Golden bread"), Stuffoli (pie from dough balls, similar to the French crocemum).

For the festive New Year's table in Italy sit in the evening, about 9 o'clock. The dinner of St. Sylvester continues until midnight. For the coming year to be successful, thirteen dishes should be put on the table. Usually they prepare the same dishes as for Christmas. In every area of ​​Italy there are their beliefs about what products on the festive table bring good luck: somewhere it is caviar, somewhere - chickpeas (turkish peas). By the way, in Italy on New Year's Eve they drink not champagne, but Italian sparkling wine - spumante.

If you want to celebrate the New Year in a noisy crowd, go to Piazza del Popolo in Rome. There you can see the New Year's performanceopen-air: acrobats, light-musical performance, fireworks. And at 12 o'clock drink for the offensive of the new year right from the throat, and then break the bottle on the foot of the monument. And try not to walk under the windows: in the New Year, the Italians throw out all the trash from the windows, it is believed that this brings happiness. And the most risky for the sake of happiness jumping on New Year's Eve from the bridge directly to the Tiber River.

And the New Year in Italy is not only the "head of the year" (Capodanno), but also a period of discounts. So it is worth combining walks on the festively decorated streets of Italian cities with shopping. When else you can get stunningdiscounts, say, on Italian clothes, shoes and leather goods? And do not forget to bring souvenirs from Italy for relatives and friends, for example, the famous Buran lace and Murano glassware. By the way, if you are lucky, you can see with your own eyes a Christmas tree made of Murano glass in Venice.

If you prefer active rest, You can meet the New Year in Italy at one of the ski resorts in the Alps. Everyone can find a resort to taste. Some Italian resorts are designed for extreme sportsmen, primarily interested in skiing, some for families with children, some for young people. If you want to further improve your health, choose a resort with thermal springs, and if you are interested in local customs, go to one of the small towns lost in the mountains.

But keep in mind that the New Year in Italy is certainyou want to meet not you alone. Christmas is one of the most popular tourist seasons, so you should take care of booking flights and hotels (or buying a tour in a travel agency) in advance. Only in this way you can celebrate the New Year of your dreams in one of the Italian cities.