Halloween in Italy?

[Brad C. Hodson]

My wife and I nailed down our trip finally. We're going to be in Italy from October 3rd thru November 2nd. We'll be taking our two sons with us (5 years old and 18 months at the time of the trip). I'd like my 5 year old to still have a Halloween. While I know Halloween is predominantly an American Halloween, I've read quite a bit about how it's gaining popularity in Italy. I know there are towns like Corinaldo that have massive Halloween celebrations. I've even read that there are neighborhoods in Rome and other cities where people trick or treat.

The problem I'm running into is finding any specific information. I'd love to take my son somewhere where he could experience a fun, age appropriate Halloween, but everything I come across when trying to find specifics seems to be information on bars, wild parties, and gruesome horror-themed events targeted toward teenagers and adults. Does anyone know where we might be able to take him for Halloween? We'll have an apartment in Rome for our entire stay but plan to travel around the country quite a bit, so while Rome would be ideal, we're open to other places.

 

[Ian Sutton]

All souls night was pretty special in Ferrara when the fog came down, and I'm guessing this would normally be celebrated across Italy. This might be one to try the tourist offices for, who should have good local options,

 

[joe]

We've been in Italy during Halloween, and actually were surprised by the amount of activity surrounding this. Kids going around with costumes; masks and holiday-related merchandise in the stores. Seems that this holiday has quite successfully conquered a bit of the calendar's real estate........
I'd suppose that you could probably find some sort of activity that would be suitable for your son once you're there, although there's always the possibility that these might be restricted to schools/kindergartens, or between families. What you could do is send a query ahead of time to the accommodation that you'll be at, and see if they know about something. I'm pretty sure that a similar query on one of the travel forums that have locals answering (such as Like A Local) would also get you some good info.