An Alpine Carnival

Getting to the small town of Bagolino was quite a job. It might have been because of my not-so-accurate map, but certainly the winding mountain road that eventually took me there was neither the quickest nor the easiest route. Not to mention the snow that started to fall halfway there.

Best known for , the hard cheese that is produced here, Bagolino is less famous for its carnival, and one can easily understand why, tucked away as it is in a remote corner of Alpine Italy. Still, when a team of Italian researchers stumbled onto it in 1972, this very was declared the most important ethnological discovery of the last 200 years. Thanks to its centurieslong geographic isolation, this mountain village had developed a tradition of its own – a marvel of sounds, colours, ancient dances and traditional costumes. A carnival with a difference.