In Verona, the Carnival fest is known as "Venerdì Gnocolar”.
The origins of this name, also known as Bacanàl del Gnoco, bring us back to a traditional legend.
The Carnival in Verona is one of the mst ancient of Europe,that is still active.
It was born in 1531, after a bad famine that caused sky-high prices for the flour, and cause of it a bakeries lockout.
Then a riot of the poor people, most of them living in San Zeno area, at the time one of the places where used to live many poor people.
In order to calm them down, some of the richest in town bought wheat and flour and distributed it to the crowd.
One of them seems to be was Tommaso Da Vico, today the father of the Carnival in Verona.
They say that his last will was to give the people free bread, wine, butter, flour and cheese on the last Friday of the Carnival time. At fist it was called Venerdì Casolar,then it changet into Venerdì Gnocolàr, refferring to the gnocchi distributed in San Zeno Square.
From San Zeno area, the Carnival became a very present tradition in every neighbourhood of Verona, and each one of them has its own Carnival mask.
What better tradition than celebrate with a good plate of gnocchi and a glass of our Valpolicella Doc? ;-)

A presto,

VM