Halloween in Italy (and Perugia)
Yesterday was Halloween in Perugia, and here, as all over Italy, a small number of children spent the afternoon and the early evening running around in costume looking for candy. Dolcetto o scherzetto! “Trick or treat!” While the holiday is still largely promoted by the costume industry here, the “American” (actually Irish) holiday has taken root perhaps because of the decades of movies showing this October 31st event.
Umbra students wore their hearts on their sleeves, literally, as they dressed up for Halloween. Part of the festivities too was carving a jack-o-lantern for the school’s window. 
Italians were generally quite curious about the holiday, which comes just before Tutti santi, or All Saint’s Day, when up and down the peninsula people go to cemeteries to place flowers. The connections to the American festival are obvious, but an interesting post from a Tuscan blog writers gives some of the history behind them.