Carnevale di Venezia

Carnevale festivities kicked off this past weekend in Venice. The weeks leading up to the beginning of Lent became a time of celebration (the word's Latin origins mean 'farewell' and 'meat') until the French took over the city in 1797. Masks were very popular during this time (and eventually only allowed during these weeks) because it allowed one to avoid the caste system of the city and partake in vices not always looked highly upon. You can read more about Carnevale's origins in this Telegraph article about this year's event.

quite an elaborate mask

Until a fellow co-worker posted some pics from her day trip to Venice last year I had no idea that people wore masks and dressed up during Carnevale. It was then that I decided it was a must do while living in Europe.

We were lucky that the "acqua alta" was not an issue.
Venice, as you might guess, is prone to flooding.

Our weekend turned out pretty tame overall, but sounds like it gets crazier as Lent approaches. Because of our upcoming vacation week this was our only chance to check out Venice during this year's festival.

just the four of us...

Saturday we shopped for masks and enjoyed some pizza for lunch. We wandered around looking for an event on the official Carnevale website, but never found it. We had early dinner reservations Saturday night (traveler's tip...book a good bit in advance during Carnevale) and then checked out a few local bars. On Sunday, we planned to check out the boat parade along the Grand Canal. The website said 10:30 and also said 12:00 so we ended up having to wait quite a bit before the short parade came our way. The parade was fairly short, but made it all worthwhile. There were several boats, including a giant rat filled with balloons. We hoped they would release them at the bridge where we were standing, but no such luck.

Here are some of my favorite shots from our weekend.

beginning of the boat parade

all oars up!

If you want to view the rest of my Venice pictures, you can check out my albums on Flickr.

By booking our train tickets and hotel three months ago we saved a lot of money. We were able to cover both for 72 euro per person. We stayed at Al Canal Regio in Cannaregio. It was relatively inexpensive and okay for a night.