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Italy's
Venice Carnival
is a funny, crazy and colourful event set in one of the world's most
unique and beautiful cities - safe too, though beware pickpockets in
the crowded square [Piazza] of San Marco. For the ten days the city
sees all sorts of normally sensible folk, including many families, as
well wackos, weirdos and exhibitionists, dressing up in specially made
costumes or outfits rented for the occasion, strutting their stuff around
Venice's centre.
The area is stuffed with both sightseers and snappers of pictures, but
there are sufficient sights of both the costumed variety and of local
architecture and artefacts to keep any visitor happy for quite a few
days, if not the whole event.
Basilica di San Marco in the heart of Venice, Piazza San Marco
Costumes:
The
Carnival is a must-see for anyone remotely interested in fashion, style,
or taking wild Venice photos, with costumes ranging from elaborate formal
Regency outfits, through bizarre and expensive designer kit, to bizarre
and cheap home-made kit, to large family groups shuffling around dressed
as King Penguins. The outfit pictured above, along with its red/black
twin, was probably designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier.
For the full flavour, rent a costume and go to a costume ball [the poshest
is the Doge's Ball].
A family of 'Plague Doctors' spookily cruising Piazza San Marco
Best days: the best costume sights are not so much at the beginning or end of the event, they are at the weekends when non-Venice Italians appear in all their finery. Weekends are thus the most crowded times too...
The Rialto Bridge, Venice, built in 1591 after several previous bridges collapsed. Picture by Nino Barbieri.
A typical tourist's day: One of the best
aspects of this festivity is the relaxed structure. A typical day visitor's
might go something like this...
Up late, breakfast in your hotel not far from the Piazza San Marco.
Stagger a few yards to the Piazza about 10am, take a quick look to see
if there are any serious costumes about, then have an expresso and brandy
in a bar - standing up, because it's cheaper that way.
Back into the square, take a few pictures of early weirdos, then take
off for an hour's walk, or maybe take a water bus to one of the neighbouring
islands.
Have a real Italian pizza for lunch - having found a place where Italians
are eating - then back to the increasingly crowded Piazza area mid afternoon
for the rest of the day.
Italian party people, who often wear the most inventive or beautiful
outfits, will have recovered from the night before and will make appearances
- happily posing for photos - before diving into the Café Florian
or wherever is fashionable that year. Mind you, Florian has been fashionable
for a few hundred years so it'll probably remain so for a while yet.
Then, as dusk falls, families head for dinner places while the party
people head for their rooms to prepare for another wild night in Venice.
If you've already done the Venice thing, you could try a carnival in a different European location. There are excellent carnivals at: Viareggio, Italy; Binche, Belgium; Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; Munich, Germany; Sitges, Spain, near Barcelona - a very gay show.
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