Carnevale in Venice

The only way to describe Carnevale (and Venice in general) is, simply put, magical.

I planned this trip with my friend Kaitlin before we even arrived in Rome because I'd read and heard many accounts of Venice's Carnevale and the spectacle that it was. Though we took the overnight train both ways and were exhausted when our train pulled back in to Rome at 6:30 am Monday morning before our 9 am classes, we sleepily agreed that the weekend could not have been more perfect.

We arrived in Venice around 6 am Friday morning, and as it was still pitch black outside and nothing was open, we meandered our way through the city's winding alleys and put ourselves on the water ready to watch the sun come up. Unfortunately, it was incredibly overcast and foggy so there was no sunrise to see, however it gave Venice and eerie early morning feel as the fog settled over the island.

A quiet Venice morning

Fog over the Grand Canal

We spent most of Friday aimlessly wandering Venice's beautiful streets. Arriving Friday morning gave us an idea of how Venice works on a local level - we saw many families getting ready for school and going about as if it were an entirely normal day, as opposed to the next two days that would fill the small island with a few million (!) people. What struck me most initially was that, aside from the train station, the island of Venice is an entirely pedestrian city - we did not see one car. Everything is transported by boat through Venice's many canals, and even the police use smaller speed boats to get around. The majority of the streets are much too narrow for cars anyway, but it was just an interesting concept to us that the entire island was free of any kind of automobile.

Too small for cars

A fraction of the crowd

Though it's a relatively small island, we had no trouble keeping ourselves occupied simply walking around (even by Sunday we were still stumbling across new sights but also we got lost every 10 minutes and would end up stranded at the edge of a canal). We spent time in several mask shops before finally settling on two lovely handcrafted masks from a local husband and wife who have been in the business together for 30 years. They were warm and welcoming and talked with us for over 30 minutes about their craft and showed us parts of the mask-making process. Talking with them and learning first hand about such an important part of the festival was hands down one of the most fulfilling parts of our weekend.

Not great lighting but the masks we finally chose!

More intricate masks 

Street vendor masks (what most people wore)

In the evenings, we happened to be staying right in Venice's university district making for a lively nightlife scene. The main square near us, Campo Santa Margherita, was full of great shops, restaurants, gelato, and young college students like us. We had a great time getting to know part of Venice's younger culture, and met some really great people during our evenings out.

I'm not going to give an extensive summary of the history surrounding Venice's Carnevale celebrations (look here if you want to know more), but essentially the festival began as a celebration and feast leading up to the start of lent. Masks have been used for centuries in Venice - notably they were used in the Parliament to maintain absolute anonymity during voting - but it was also common place for people to wear their masks through the streets simply because they could. While the Carnevale was stopped for a period of time, it was reinstated in 1979 and has been a world famous celebration ever since.

Kaitlin and I spent basically all day Saturday and Sunday wandering around St. Mark's Square and its surroundings - the center of the festivities and hub of all the costumes. We were lucky enough to see a few parades, costume contests, and shows put on for everyone during the day, and were continuously blown away by the beauty, intricacy, and creativity of the costumes. At first it was slightly perplexing to us why people would put in so much time and effort just to dress up for a couple weeks and have people take pictures of you (with a mask on your face, of course), however as the weekend went on we began to understand the appeal of not only dressing up to appreciate Venice's traditional Carnevale celebrations, but also just the fun of being seen and having people admire your work. Below is a sample of what we encountered over the weekend.

My favorite duo

As you can tell, simply wandering around and admiring the costumes was an event itself. This is without a doubt an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life, and I feel so fortunate that I was able to take part in such a beautiful and unique festival.

Watching the gondolas on our last evening