Where: Venice, Italy
When: February 11, 2012
With who: Loren and Rachel
This was it. The big night in Venice we were all waiting for: Carnevale. Italy's answer to Mardi Gras...actually, no, this came hundreds of years before Mardi Gras. So long ago that Napoleon banned it back in his time because it was too lascivious. Thankfully, it started up again in the 1970's and now we get to celebrate.
It takes place every year during the two weeks prior to Lent as a sort of...get all the evil urges out of you before purging your sins for 40 days. The main event takes place in Saint Mark's Square, but all of Venice gets dressed in their best 1700s attire to attend balls, masquerades, and parties.
When we got off the boat from Murano, Venice had completed transformed into a giant masked party. And we didn't have our masks yet! First thing was first -brave the crowded shops to make our purchase. There was quite a bit of selection.
My incredibly uninspiring photo of Loren and I wearing our masks in the bathroom mirror.
Now that we were properly outfitted, it was time for some people watching in St. Mark's square. One funny thing about people watching in a mask - it's not like people watching in sunglasses - they can still see you staring at them. Awkwardddd..
Eventually, we stopped being shy and just walked right up to people to take their photos.
We eventually had to pry ourselves out of the square, as we had a masquerade bar crawl to attend. You know, classy like how we do.
We caught the boat over to where we were meeting up with the group for the crawl. Not a bad way to commute.
First stop on the tour was a bar that was hundreds of years old. Looking around the place with all the masks, it felt pretty surreal.
Onto bar 2. To distract from the cold, our guide tried to show us some of the sites. He was so sweet and interesting to talk to. He was born in Venice, and knew the streets like the back of his hand.
Bar number two was called the Cantina do Mori. The ceiling was covered with kettles hundreds of years old that people used to use to carry water in.
The fourth and final bar had the labels of bottles of wine from who knows how long ago covering the ceiling.
After the bar crawl ended, we were convinced that we could get back to the center of town on our own. Unfortunately, the streets of Venice, built to confuse any potential intruders, rendered us completely lost. We wandered through the tiny alleyways for a very long 20 minutes. When we finally emerged from the labyrinth, we finally came upon water and a ferry station and decided to give up and boat it back.
Across the canal, we got a glimpse of quite the party going on. Music and fire breathers and private boats pulling up to let their guests out. Tickets to this party were probably a wee outside of our price range, but it looked so fun.
In the square was a huge stand selling candy. We couldn't resist the GIGANTIC pieces of meringue that were being sold.
In the center of the area, there was a roped off part where you could buy tables. People were dancing on the tables, in full capes and masks.
On stage, the band played all the pop favorites. I loved the little private boxes all around the back of the stage.
At this point, we were hungry for something other than meringue. So we slipped away from Saint Mark's into the back alleyways in search of food. While we didn't exactly find a place that was authentic, it involved pizza and and wine, and that was all we needed. We ate and drank, in our masks of course, and toasted our last night in Italy.
When: February 11, 2012
With who: Loren and Rachel
This was it. The big night in Venice we were all waiting for: Carnevale. Italy's answer to Mardi Gras...actually, no, this came hundreds of years before Mardi Gras. So long ago that Napoleon banned it back in his time because it was too lascivious. Thankfully, it started up again in the 1970's and now we get to celebrate.
It takes place every year during the two weeks prior to Lent as a sort of...get all the evil urges out of you before purging your sins for 40 days. The main event takes place in Saint Mark's Square, but all of Venice gets dressed in their best 1700s attire to attend balls, masquerades, and parties.
When we got off the boat from Murano, Venice had completed transformed into a giant masked party. And we didn't have our masks yet! First thing was first -brave the crowded shops to make our purchase. There was quite a bit of selection.
My incredibly uninspiring photo of Loren and I wearing our masks in the bathroom mirror.
Now that we were properly outfitted, it was time for some people watching in St. Mark's square. One funny thing about people watching in a mask - it's not like people watching in sunglasses - they can still see you staring at them. Awkwardddd..
Eventually, we stopped being shy and just walked right up to people to take their photos.
Clearly, in the midst of all this, there would be a fountain of wine. Obviously.
We eventually had to pry ourselves out of the square, as we had a masquerade bar crawl to attend. You know, classy like how we do.
We caught the boat over to where we were meeting up with the group for the crawl. Not a bad way to commute.
While waiting for things to start, there was no shortage of people watching to be done.
Cold and ready for our bar crawl to start!
First stop on the tour was a bar that was hundreds of years old. Looking around the place with all the masks, it felt pretty surreal.
Onto bar 2. To distract from the cold, our guide tried to show us some of the sites. He was so sweet and interesting to talk to. He was born in Venice, and knew the streets like the back of his hand.
Bar number two was called the Cantina do Mori. The ceiling was covered with kettles hundreds of years old that people used to use to carry water in.
Bar number 3 - a fisherman's bar.
Continuing over the river, we crossed the Ponte Rialto again from the other direction.
On the other side of the bridge, we found more costumes and a band playing music in the streets.
The fourth and final bar had the labels of bottles of wine from who knows how long ago covering the ceiling.
After the bar crawl ended, we were convinced that we could get back to the center of town on our own. Unfortunately, the streets of Venice, built to confuse any potential intruders, rendered us completely lost. We wandered through the tiny alleyways for a very long 20 minutes. When we finally emerged from the labyrinth, we finally came upon water and a ferry station and decided to give up and boat it back.
Across the canal, we got a glimpse of quite the party going on. Music and fire breathers and private boats pulling up to let their guests out. Tickets to this party were probably a wee outside of our price range, but it looked so fun.
Finally, we made it back to St. Mark's.
There was quite the party going on in the square. Loud music of all the best sing-along songs during a night of drinking - Dirty Dancing, Grease, and other pop music.
So we jumped right into the fray to dance and sing with the rest of the party.
In the square was a huge stand selling candy. We couldn't resist the GIGANTIC pieces of meringue that were being sold.
In the center of the area, there was a roped off part where you could buy tables. People were dancing on the tables, in full capes and masks.
On stage, the band played all the pop favorites. I loved the little private boxes all around the back of the stage.
At this point, we were hungry for something other than meringue. So we slipped away from Saint Mark's into the back alleyways in search of food. While we didn't exactly find a place that was authentic, it involved pizza and and wine, and that was all we needed. We ate and drank, in our masks of course, and toasted our last night in Italy.
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