Every year on the third week of February, the city of Ivrea (Piedmont) celebrates the Battle of the Oranges, an event, which attracts thousands of people from all over the city (and beyond) in which participants are divided into 9 teams and fight in a real battle pelting oranges at each other.
According to legend, this curious tradition represents the uprising against a cruel tyrant, the terrible Ranieri di Biandrate, who claimed the right to sleep with any bride on her wedding night. Unfortunately for him, a girl named Violetta refused to sleep with the tyrant and cut his head off with a dagger.
That’s why every year, during the Battle of the Oranges a girl is chosen in order to play the role of Violetta, while the destruction of tyrant’s castle is symbolically represented by the throwing of the oranges (which represent Ranieri’s head.)