Il Carnival more important than Verona is certainly the BacanĂ l del Gnoco, celebrated in the capital precisely in the so-called Venardi Gnocolar, the last Friday of Carnival.
But in the province a great carnival is unleashed in the town of Monteforte d'Alpone (VR) a carnival which, as well as a party, has been a real collective celebration for over sixty years, with musical and cabaret evenings, goliardic jokes and dances, and the inevitable parades of masks and the most important allegorical floats of all the district.
Officially born in the 1949 (but with concrete evidence since the end of the nineteenth century, with the interruption of the demonstrations in the Fascist period), the carnival of Monteforte d'Alpone is named Carnevalòn de l'Alpòn (from the name of the local river) precisely to underline its importance and size in terms of days covered, of busy city spaces and of people who voluntarily dedicate themselves to the organization.
Everything starts on Saturday this year 1 March with the great night parade of allegorical floats through the streets of the capital, replicating the following day in the hamlets of Costalunga and Brognoligo. The grand finale then again in Monteforte d'Alpone, during the afternoon of Tuesday 4 March, for a spectacular party of masks, allegorical floats, parents and children, in an explosion of colors and music as only a great carnival can give.
They want us months and months of work every year to get to set up a carnival organization of these features, starting first from the conception, design and construction of the floats (to be kept hidden until the fateful moment) and passing through the whole carnival through moments of celebration and very serious elections, appointments masterfully led by Re del Torbolin, Principe del Gnoco and Sior Carnevalon, the historic masks of Monteforte.
But the Carnevalòn is not "limited" to parades, parties, jokes and moments of joy. The food and wine side dish certainly could not be missing: in particular, in the land of Soave and the more local Torbolìn, hence the name of one of the traditional masks, a toast with good wine is an excellent accompaniment to pancakes and the excellent dish of the Veronese carnival: gnocchi, preferably with tomato as per tradition.
First course which also becomes the protagonist of another of the salient events of the Montefortian carnival, on the occasion of the "Gnocolada" of the last Friday of the carnival (precisely "Venardi Gnocolar", this year on February 28th), when in piazza Venturi it is possible to taste the gnocchi offered by the Pro Loco and cooked by the Alpini, with challenge between the eight districts to those who can eat the greatest amount of gnocchi.
