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Published: February 21st 2010
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Ciao Everyone!
As many Catholics I'm sure are aware, we have recently started the Lenten Season. However, in order to get charged and ready for this very special time in the Church calendar, many cities throughout the world will throw lavish Fat Tuesday Celebrations. Most Americans are familiar with the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, but Italy also hosts its own festivals- most notably the one in Venice called Carnivale. I had heard from numerous people who had studied abroad in Rome previously that Carnivale was definitely something I would want to see so our group made sure to book this trip pretty early in the game. During the planning process, we were shocked to see how expensive hostel and transportation prices were for this weekend, so in an effort to save a little money we actually booked with a tour group called Bus To Alps. This group specifically arranges trips for college students to different places around Europe, and for Carnivale they were offering a day trip for about 85 euro which ended up being comparable to what we would have payed for train tickets.
We left on a bus about 8:30 in the morning and the
drive north took about 8ish hours. I think normally it would have been 6 but the group stopped several times for sick people/extra long snack breaks. While the length of the trip wasn't so fun the scenery of the drive up was absolutely gorgeous. It was actually kind of funny because we went through such a spectrum of places. Rome is green and almost spring like, then as we made our way more north, it became more mountainous and very snowy (but awesome views I might add). While I fell asleep for whatever came next, Venice ended up being this sunny and warmish place that really reminded me of being at the beach in New Jersey.
We finally got off the bus at around 4:30 and right away you could tell there was definitely the spirit of celebrations and parties in the air. Actually, I think the closest American equivalent I could compare it to would be Halloween. ?There isn't really candy involved but little children were walking around all dressed up in costumes and even some adults were pretty elaborately dressed in victorian-style garb (including the massive white whigs and everything!). Some of these adults ended up becoming
celebrities in the streets because tons of tourists would go up and ask to take pictures with them which would then turn into a 30 minute photo-shoot with revolving groups of tourists. What I learned later is that a lot of these dressed-up adults are actually in costume to go to elaborate balls throughout the city. How fun right? Seems like this is a celebration that the people of Venice probably look forward to for a long time.
While I was in Venice mostly during the evening, we did get an opportunity to see a little bit of Venice's beauty during the day. When I saw all the little canals and the smaller alleyways adorned with clothes lines and flower boxes, I couldn't help but think that Venice was what I pictured as the quintessential Italian city. Don't get me wrong, St. Peters and the Duomo in Florence are obviously staples to this country but there is something about Venice that says Italy like no other place I've been too. There is also really nothing like Venice in terms of its construction. Venice is a city completely surrounded by water so in addition to the numerous bridges, the city
has public transportation in the form of boats. Called water buses or water taxis, I found this ride to be a perfect way to get a great look around the city, and to take some awesome pictures as well. Venice is also famous for its gondolas, of course equipped with a very enthusiastic gondolier, but we were told that at max you could get 4 people in one and would all have to pay 20 euro- a little too pricey for our frugal college budgets. But from looking at them they looked super cute and something I wouldn't mind doing if I ever went back.
Our first stop in Venice was too a little island called Burano. It took about an hour to get there via waterbus but the island's charm made the trip totally worth it. Burano is really famous for the fact that all of its houses are painted different colors. If you've ever seen WeeSing's Sillyville, this place truly was a rainbow of colors just like in the movie. Our main objective on the island was to purchase our Carnivale masks. During the festival everyone either dresses up or wears these plaster masks that are very
beautifully painted or sometimes even donned with feathers and/or flowers. Our tour guide said it would be best to come to this island to get them because not only would they be cheaper than getting them at Piazza San Marco where the main Carnivale celebrations were going on, but these masks would also have the official "Made in Venice" stamp- a must have I guess. Upon walking into the mask shop, I was blown away by the intricacies of the masks. Pretty much any combination of colors and designs possible were presented and you could tell that they probably took hours and hours of time to do. I knew going in I wanted a green mask to match my scarf and immediately was drawn to a simple yet very pretty green and gold mask- only 8 euro which I was pretty happy with. The other girls in my group got more elaborate masks with feathers and flowers- we all looked pretty spiffy!
After eating some dinner we headed back to Piazza San Marco to start our true Carnivale experience. The piazza was truly packed, mostly with tourists I would say. There were of course people in outfits everywhere and
also plenty of intoxicated groups of young guys trying to contribute to the party with their drinking songs. In the middle of the piazza there was a massive stage set up where throughout the evening there were different types of performances including dancing and fire shows. Unfortunately we missed the end of the last show but we did get to watch a marching band start up and make its way around the piazza (the band nerd in me was absolutely thrilled)! We ended up just walking around the city for awhile, making our way past the fashion district and eventually landing at the Hard Rock Cafe. As the night came to a close we decided to join in a dance party going on near a dj booth in the piazza and had a really fun time just letting loose and having fun.
Our bus was leaving at 12:30 so we had to give ourselves some time to make it back on the waterbus so we had to leave the festivities at around 11:30. Overall, the trip was really fun and I think probably one of the most unique things I've done in Italy so far. I liked it because of the fact that we not only got to visit Venice but also participate and become part of the city through Carnivale. I'll have my mask as a reminder of the night I became a Venetian lady of Carnivale! Ciao!!
Love,
Anne
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