500 Adrenaline Adventures (Frommer's) - Lois Friedland [244]
Contestants compete in the coffin race at the Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival.
The 21⁄2-day festival, held the first weekend in March, includes lots of wacky events. The Ice Blue Ball on Friday evening includes a Grandpa Bredo look-alike contest followed by a midnight champagne tour that includes spending an hour with the Frozen Dead Guy. Saturday features a slow parade, an obstacle course, coffin race (six pallbearers carrying a coffin with a rider, all in costume), the adrenaline-filled Polar Plunge, a frozen dough ball toss, a pack your pants with snow contest, a frozen T-shirt contest, and a late night Pub Crawl. Sunday’s events include the Sundance Salmon Toss, a Beach Volleyball Contest, and a Blue Ball (Rocky Mountain oysters) Eating Contest. Entry forms for these events can be obtained through the Nederland Chamber of Commerce.
Nederland is easy to reach by car and local bus service from Boulder. During early March there is still skiing at nearby Eldora Ski Resort and several major ski resorts, including Vail, Copper, Keystone, and Winter Park, all within a 2-hour drive. Central City, an old mining-turned-gambling town a dozen miles (19km) away, is home of the famous Face on the Barroom Floor. A visit to the old cemetery at the far end of town is interesting and worthwhile. And Boulder, home to the University of Colorado, is a great place to spend a day or two. —LF
Nederland Chamber ( 303/258-3936;www.nederlandchamber.org). Visitor Guide to Boulder (www.normankoren.com/Boulder.html).
When to Go: First weekend in Mar.
Denver International Airport (59 miles/95km).
$–$$ Mountain View Chalet Cabin Rental ( 303/258-9219;www.mtnviewchalet.com). $ Best Western Lodge At Nederland, 55 Lakeview Dr. ( 800/279-9463 or 303/258-9463; www.bestwesterncolorado.com/hotels/best-western-lodge-at-nederland).
437
The Ivrea Orange Battle
Blood & Orange Juice
Ivrea, Italy
What would you do if some dark knight rode into town and tried to steal your fiancée’s virginity? Pelt him with an orange is what. In fact, several hundred thousand if you feel like it. This is what happens in the northwestern Italian town of Ivrea every February. The normally sedate village 40 minutes north of Turin becomes a seething mass of fruit hurling maniacs, intent on whacking opposing teams with oranges that end up mulched and stomped into the ground, leaving the town looking like it has been hit by a monsoon of vitamin C. The citrus carnage has a medieval appearance as tall box carts dressed up like castles trundle through the city streets and plazas. Inside are a line of men dressed up like a juicy version of the Praetorian guard with sinister black helmets and padded suits. They are deluged by volleys of oranges from the thoroughfares packed with slinging participants, themselves dressed like aggressive court jesters with checkered scarves, grey tights, and scorpion adorned shirts. Spectators, buildings, and windows are protected by large net canopies and those wearing red scarves are deemed neutral and thus protected against a hard whack of sunny delight—in theory. In fact, everybody is at risk of getting a bruising—including the insanely unprotected riders and the unfortunate horses.
There are actually several versions of the festival’s origins, one including a tale of a girl on a balcony trying to attract a boy’s attention by smacking him with an orange. It is unrecorded if this come-on worked. The most compelling story comes from Medieval times when the local tyrant Count Ranieri of Biandrate used to insist on bedding every local maiden on the eve of her wedding. One such girl stood up to him however and cut his head off, hanging it from his castle battlements which was then promptly stormed by a baying crowd and burned to the ground. The veracity of this story is as shaky