Venice Carnival Overview

My inspiration for the Venice Carnival series came, not surprisingly, from a trip to Venice that I took with a flat-mate while studying abroad in London spring semester of my junior year in college. Rather than catching a direct flight to Italy, we decided that we wanted to experience European train travel and subsequently purchased a ticket for the Eurostar, which is the high-speed train that travels underneath the English Channel starting from London’s Waterloo station and terminating at Gare du Nord station in Paris, and a non-consecutive five-day Eurail pass good for train travel throughout mainland Western Europe. After arriving in Paris and catching a bite to eat at a café, we booked a ‘couchette’ or sleeping cabin, and slept soundly as we traveled across France towards Italy. We awoke the next day thrilled to see the sun shining on the breathtaking Tuscan countryside; a much welcomed sight compared to London’s endless gray days of gloom and rain. After spending a few days in the beautiful Renaissance city of Florence and visiting the usual tourist sites that included Michelangelo’s David, the Duomo, the Boboli Gardens, and the Pont Vecchio; we decided to head towards Venice.

As the train approached the city, we were unaware of the chaos we were about to encounter as we stepped off the train and onto the platform and into a horde of endless bodies shoving, pushing, and fighting their way towards the evening trains that had just arrived. We, on the other hand, were heading in the opposite direction of the tidal wave, valiantly fought the stampede, and escaped the train station virtually unscathed. Outside the station at dusk we encountered a wide canal where water taxis or ‘vaporettos’ docked along the shore to pick up passengers. There was a chill coming off of the Adriatic Sea as we waited for our transportation to arrive taking us across the canal to the youth hostel that we had thankfully booked days beforehand. While waiting we noted the underlying air of excitement and celebration, the brightly colored confetti littering the ground, the occasional costumed child with a painted face, and the occasional adult donning an ornate mask. It wasn’t until after we dropped off our backpacks at the hostel and found the center of the city did we realize that our observances did not typify a usual day in Venice, but to our surprise ‘Carnival’ was underway.

Venice Carnival, like Mardi Gras but more family-oriented, is a ten day celebration leading up to the first the day of Lent. Parties, feasts, pageants, dancing, and masked people in brightly colored costumes are just a few examples of the revelry we encountered our few nights in ‘the sinking city’. Having not yet eaten dinner that night, we planned to head towards the Piazza San Marco to check out the restaurants in the area. To our surprise the piazza was crowded with people singing and dancing. As we made our way through the crowd, a few jovial boys with the intention of having us join the fun, jumped in front of us, said a quick thickly-accented “Hello!”, and proceeded to grab our hands and spin us around the square. After the short-lived dance with the overly friendly locals had ended, the strobe light effect of dozens of camera flashes going off in the night alerted us to the whereabouts of many brightly colored costumed figures. The figures moved silently and slowly as the crowd of parents and children gathered around them with hopes of capturing a good photo. Every costume had a different color, texture, and theme with varying degrees of the ornate. Most notably, I spied an immobile masked woman sitting on the confetti-strewn stone steps of a building that flanked the piazza obviously impeded by the enormous green tail of her snake-themed costume. Her long green fingers grasped a scaled fan and her headdress was a tangle of tiny snakes reminiscent of Medusa’s fabled locks. We reluctantly left the Piazza San Marco, got a bite to eat, and ended the night exploring the shops along the narrow maze of walkways throughout the city that mainly consisted of Venetian glass, reasonably priced Italian leather, and hand-made souvenir carnival masks-of which I purchased three.

The next day was brilliant as the sun hit the charmingly weathered white buildings of Venice. Tourist-filled gondolas floated gently on the blue-green water of the canals and kiosks full of carnival souvenirs and masks, which are found throughout the city, sparkled in the sunlight. While waiting for my flat-mate, whom had wondered off to find a face painter, I sat down to eat a delicious raspberry gelato ice cream cone near the famous covered Rialto Bridge. After my flat-mate had returned with one side of her face painted with gold glitter and green swirls, we decided to head back towards the Piazza San Marco in search of more carnival figures. While navigating through the sea of black overcoats within the piazza, I spotted triplets wearing impressive identical cream-colored costumes highlighted with stud- lined ‘wings’ and a turquoise blue plume of feathers and gauze atop their heads. The figures wore simple gold masks, turquoise satin capes, and impressive diamond-shaped belts over long full skirts. Excited mothers and their children happily swarmed around the figures like disciples, eager to take photographs of the anonymous celebrities before them.

Feeling claustrophobic, we left the crowded square and headed towards the less populated docking area adjacent to the piazza. A trio of figures huddling close together and wearing themed costumes that consisted of a sun and moon figure and a stylized rendition of a well-dressed turn-of- the-century lady, caught our eye. The lady wore a patterned pink lace-trimmed gown, a flowered hat with attached polka dot veil, white fur stole, and a simple white mask with painted blood red lips. The moon figure was wrapped in a dark blue satin cape dotted with the occasional tiny silver star and wearing a blue half moon-shaped mask lined with a silver ruffle. And lastly, the sun figure wore a bright yellow satin gown with silver belt, and a gold heart-shaped mask encircled with rays of gauze.

After our encounter with the trio, we decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the city and continued to enjoy the carnival festivities that Venice had to offer. The next day we boarded a train to Barcelona and awaited another adventure.