Ivrea

Ivrea is a smallish town, with a population of slightly over 20,000 people located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Through the 20th century its primary claim to fame was as the base of operations for Olivetti, a once well-known manufacturer of typewriters, mechanical calculators and - later - computers. The company no longer has an independent existence, though its name still appears as a registered trademark on office equipment manufactured by others.

The town first appears in history as a cavalry station of the army of the Roman Empire, set to guard one of the traditional invasion routes into northern Italy over the Alps. The Latin name of the town, "Eporedia," has long since vanished into the mists of time, but still appears as the root of the name of the town residents, who are known as "eporediesi" in Italian and, to the degree anyone speaks of them at all abroad, as "Eporedians" in English.

Though the town has played an interesting subisidiary role in Italian history, it is today best known for its peculiar traditional carnival, whose core celebration is based on a locally famous "battle of the oranges." This involves some thousands of townspeople, divided into combat teams, who throw orangess at each other - with considerable violence - in rather disorganized battles lasting over several days. The origin of this tradition is not well understood, particularly as oranges do not grow in the foothills of the Italian Alps and must be imported from the South of Italy at considerable cost.