Chinese lanterns illuminate Italian theme park

A large collection of handmade Chinese lanterns lit up one of Italy's major theme parks in the city of Cassino this holiday season.

The International Lantern Festival "Lanternia" opened on Dec 8 at the Il Bosco delle Favole (Fairy Tale Forest) in central Italy.

Divided into six areas and featuring Christmas, fairy tales, animal and animation themes, this large-scale display covers some 110,000 square meters and 2.5 kilometers of pathways, all illuminated with giant Chinese lanterns.

The exhibition, which will run until March 10, received more than 2,000 visitors on Jan 28. This was also the opening day of Carnival, a traditional Italian holiday.

"The lanterns are popular with Italians," says Domenico Durante, director of the exhibition.

As of Jan 28, the lantern had attracted about 80,000 visitors, he adds, with 1,000 to 5,000 people entering the park each day.

The success of the exhibition is due to the exquisite handiwork of artisans in Zigong, Sichuan province, a city known for its lantern culture. A team of 15 people came to Cassino at the end of last year to work for a month, handicrafting hundreds of lanterns.