{"id":628,"date":"2013-02-01T16:01:17","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T14:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/?p=628"},"modified":"2013-09-11T21:38:55","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T19:38:55","slug":"la-befana-and-christmas-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/la-befana-and-christmas-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"La Befana and Christmas markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Italy the symbol of the Day of the Holy Three Kings is an old lady called la Befana<\/strong>. On the eve of January 6th this characteristic creature on a broomstick, looking more like a witch than a kind grandmother, visits the children to fill their socks with candies (if they had been good) or\u00a0 lump of coal (if they had been bad).<\/p>\n

\"la<\/a>
la Befena in shop window (Alba)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

This nice folklore custom means the end of\u00a0 holiday season and Christmas markets, that I have to say were numerous in Piedmont<\/strong>. Only in Langhe and Roero<\/strong> I visited\u00a0 Govone, Neive and Alba and below you will find my photo review.<\/p>\n

\"Govone<\/a>
Govone and surronding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Govone<\/strong> is a small town in Roero region, and its main attraction is a royal residence left by Savoya family. This seventeenth century castle, one of many summer residences of the king Carlo Felice, with surrounding park created a beautiful scenery for little houses full of Christmas decorations, handcrafted products and other typical bazaar stuff.<\/p>\n

\"castle<\/a>
Savoy residence in Govone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"the<\/a>
the square outside the castle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"little<\/a>
little house in the castle park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whereas on the narrow streets and small squares of charming Neive<\/strong><\/a> colorful stands pop up like mushrooms after a rain shower. Sellers offered sweets, jewellery, hand-made decorations or old china.<\/p>\n

\"old<\/a>
old building of Neive and blue sky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"stands<\/a>
stands on the main square of Neive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a<\/a>
a stand with Xmas decorations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"tasty<\/a>
tasty roasted chestnuts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alba<\/strong><\/a> organized a small one-day bazaar on Piazza Risorgimento and via Cavour.<\/p>\n

\"Xmas<\/a>
Xmas stand on via Cavour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a<\/a>
a stand with Piedmont delicacies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Italy the symbol of the Day of the Holy Three Kings is an old lady called la Befana. On the eve of January 6th this characteristic creature on a broomstick, looking more like a witch than a kind grandmother, visits the children to fill their socks with candies (if they had been good) or\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,36],"tags":[5,15],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-langhe-and-roero","category-xmas-markets","tag-langhe","tag-roero"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}