arancia

Arancia is the fruit (pl. arance); arancio is the tree. Several kinds grow in Italy, including the arancio dolce, the common sweet orange; the arancio amaro, or bitter orange: the zest is used in sweets and liqueurs.

The extremely rare arance vaniglia di Ribera, which has no seeds and exudes a powerful vanilla scent, is grown near Agrigento in Sicily and in the Slow Food Presidium.

polvere di arance di Sicilia: powdered dried orange zest

Also see arancia rossa, Chinotti, melangolo, and bergamotto.

In January, along with its carnival celebrations, Ivrea in Piemonte holds a three-day (Sunday through Shrove Tuesday) Battaglia delle arance using 280,000kg of oranges as ammunition. The battle is in memory of a 12th century revolt, after the local marquis, Guido III, attempted to impose the droit du seigneur on the newlywed Violetta, a miller’s daughter, who instead cut off his head, sparking an uprising as the locals attacked the palace.

A girl is chosen every year to represent Violetta, la Mugnaia, while the locals are divided into teams, some in carts representing the nobles and nine teams on foot. No one knows why and when the orignal ammo (the widely available beans, and later apples) was changed to oranges (which have to be imported from Sicily, although they are mostly leftovers from the winter harvest).

Some say they better symbolize the Duke’s testicles, that apparently were lopped off as well.