Carnevale a Venezia

Mark and I took a train to Venice this Saturday to celebrate at one of the world's most famous Carnevale. The crowd was so crowded and overbooked that we had to sit/stand in the luggage compartment. As we approached the city, the land and buildings fell away, and there was water on either side of the train. This definitely added to the magic of the city. We followed the hordes of people off the train, through the station, and into the sunlight, where there were even more people, an open sky, and the canals! Everyone was in a festive mood, and there were costumes galore. A Little Red Riding Hood threw confetti on my hair as I was snapping pictures from the first bridge. The flow of people going to the Campo del San Marco was unending and very helpful, because there were a million small streets to go through. Not one street wound or twisted, however, unlike Siena. Around each corner was something new: a bridge with the classic Venice picture, a cute restaurant sign, a little kid in a bear costume, a mask store with an impressive display. Everything about this city made me want to 'look it up'.

Venice is made up of 118 islands in the Venetian Lagoon. The buildings were constructed on top of piles of wood (which cannot rot in the absence of oxygen, underwater). The wood came from forests in Slovenia, that the Venetians competely deforested, and today are barren. During the 1900's, someone had the brilliant idea to dig wells all around the city, and they basically sank themselves into the ocean. Since the wells have been disallowed, the city has stabilized somewhat. Since then, they have designed a system to keep the sea from swallowing the city: the MOSE System (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico). Unfortunately, this program seems to be little more than a bunch of water-pushers: plates that rise from the sea floor when there is threat of a high tide. Here is NPR's take on it:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17855145

It took us so long to reach the Campo, because there were so many interesting people to look at and bands to listen to and stores to go into. But eventually we made it and it was basically a huge rush of people, with no idea where they were rushing to. Each person in an artistic costume was swarmed with tourists wanting to take their picture and to have their picture taken with them, etc. I was so distracted by people pushing me that I almost missed the Basilica! A beautiful Byzantine monstrostity, the church was initially constructed in 828. I love the golden lion with the blue starry background.

The masked Carnevale of Venice has been around since about 1268, when legal documents mention prosecuting masked men throwing scented eggs at the ladies in town. The city eventually embraced the festival until it became a celebration of half of the year. Different kinds of masks exist: the Bauta, which has no mouth and a triangular jaw that juts out so the wearer can eat and drink without compromising the mask. The Volto or Larva is the classic full face mask. The Colombina mask is the other popular one. It's the classic half-face mask, designed for an actress who felt she was too beautiful to be covered up. My favorite mask, however, is the Plague Doctor (Medico Della Peste). This was non a festive mask but one of fuctionality: plague 'doctors' used to wear these bird head shaped masks as a primitive gas mask. They would also wear black robes, circular glasses with red lenses (to ward away the devil), a wide brimmed hat, and carry around a stick to probe patients with. Some believed that the plague originated from birds.

We spent our day sitting on the docks of the Adriatic, turning down gondola guys (80 euro for a ride!!), enjoying the sun and a gelato. Dinner took about an hour to track down; the restaurants were impressively expensive. I saw salads for 25 euro, which is especially awful because Italian salad is nothing to write home about. But we finally found a little moderately priced restaurant (thanks to Mark's Gram and Pop for the meal!) where I had some amazing calamari and Mark had cuttle fish. Look it up! It's a really cool chameleon squid! (I had to look it up.)

The highlights of the night included a Commedia Del'Arte performance, and a spontaneous samba drum dance party along the Grande Canale. Commedia Del'Arte is an Italian improv theatre form from the 1500's, involving the same classic figures and themes. Arlecchino, or the Harlequin, is a classic character, as are Punch and Judy, and Colombina.

I had a wonderful time at Carnevale, and am eager to see how other countries celebrate it, in the future.