Carnival of Venice

At Carnival, the city of Venice, skillfully combining historical memory and expectations of a cosmopolitan public, February 18-28 live incessantly in a dimension dreams and devil, in a playful and transgressive, yet not insensitive to the tam tam media.
History of Venetian Carnival
The Carnival of Venice, which in some ways returns to the Saturnalia of the Latins and the Greeks of the Dionysian cult, rooted in the civilization of the thirteenth century and, despite various decrees issued to limit the excesses (actually more for reasons of public policy that reasons of a moral nature), it is regularly celebrated until the decline of the Serenissima Republic, with Napoleon when the Treaty of Campoformio (1797) the yields of Austria. About the Carnival of Venice, the chronicles tell that in the days before Lent, the people of all walks of life and all nationalities, with masked bauta, moretta or dominoes, is poured into the city, crowding narrow streets and small squares, or by accessing theaters, cafes under reduced and casini, the ancestral halls of palaces. While several proscenium enticed and between different, at the Carnival of Venice, powerful and humble nobility and populace used with abandon with delight to the games and shows. So Venice, rigidly oligarchic republic, gave the illusion the more humble classes to become similar to the powerful!
So melts social tensions and the consensus is maintained (the old "bread and circuses" of the Romans). At the time of the Carnival of Venice, in the public square the people attended to official celebrations - especially to those of Thursday, Grasso, namely the Forces d'Ercole and the Flight of the Turkish (an acrobat who descended on a rope from the bell tower of St. Mark ), now replaced by the flight of Colombina. C 'were also fireworks, and the improvised performances of acrobats, tightrope walkers, puppeteers, street artists, however, all activities regulated by the state. Alongside these public celebrations during the Carnival of Venice there were also many private parties in homes and palaces, where he organized dances glitzy and often engaging in gambling.
In this atmosphere of licentiousness and euphoria, the Ridotto S. Moisè, public gaming house run by the State, became one of the focal points of the Carnival of Venice: those principles, those noble Italians and foreigners, "protected" from the mask (not so the dealer, known barnabotti, impoverished Venetian aristocrats) have squandered their substance! The most important days of the Carnival of Venice were, then as today, Thursday and Fat Tuesday. The Fat Tuesday parades were reserved for blacksmiths, artisans and butchers. After the parade, bulls inghirlandati were conducted in Piazza San Marco and beheaded in the presence of the Doge, and then went on holiday with fireworks and daring flight from the Campanile of S. Marco (v.sopra). The Mardi Gras was the climax of the festivities with parades of masks, singing and dancing until the stroke of midnight. The fall of the Republic and also marked the end of Carnival of Venice. However, after a long period of arrest, it is reborn in the Eighties, with a new face, always attractive, even if not very respectful of customs and traditional costumes.
The celebration of Carnival
During the days of Carnival, Venice is a hive of activities and performances, from those improvised on the public highway by the many street artists, to those planned by the organizers. Every year there is a central theme that serves as the main theme and is developed according to different points of view, from a cultural rather than purely spectacular. The heart of the festival is the Piazza San Marco, where s'erge a grand stage, but there are many events decentralized, to avoid excessive congestion in a city where the movement is entirely pedestrian. So in the camps are organized historical parades, concerts, various shows and fireworks, and there are many local live music, theaters are set up comedies and ballets and sumptuous palaces in preparing feasts for the chosen few. Everywhere Venice is full of tourists and visitors.
Carnival of today
In general, as always happens in the lagoon city, you walk a lot: to view the masks in the magnificent scenery veneziano, to mingle with the crowd craft disguises or be photographed in magnificent costumes made especially for surprise, to live the old libertine in spirit His more commercial dimension. In recent years, this event has lost much of the spontaneity that made him be born in the early eighties: in some respects the Carnival of Venice, became the subject of sponsorship and promotional operations, seems to be "embalmed" in a walkway to the costly and elaborate costumes, worn with a sussiego out of place and out of time. However - with the approved complacent - we need to recognize the merit of Venice preserve and communicate the fascination of uniqueness.
... and finally
We close this excursus on the Venetian carnival with a message: foreigners, tourists in Italy and the occasional visitors of the Venice carnival will find a pleasant stay in temporary apartments in a 'house of 700, located in one of the most picturesque areas of the lagoon city , a few steps from Rialto Bridge. Recently refurbished, furnished with simple elegance and well served, providing a comfortable, memorable and repeatable .... Carnival of Venice