Carnevale! and other Venice, Italy Local Custom Tips

If you have a chance, you must visit Venice during their annual CARNIVAL and have your photo taken with these interesting carnival characters.

The Venetian Carnival, or CARNEVALE, is Venice's response to the Mardi Gras and Fasching.

For 10 days before Lent each winter, tourists throng the city to join in the merry-making and participate in the equally many pageants, commedia dell'arte, concerts and masked balls... right until Shrove Tuesday where every merry-making activity seems to come to a sudden halt.

Carnevale isn't just exclusively celebrated in Venice. In fact, many such festivities and merry-making occur throughout the Roman Catholic world, including Italy.

The term "carnevale" comes from the Latin word for "farewell to meat" and it literally means that. Catholics will traditionally give up eating meats during the fasting weeks leading to Easter. This sounds very much like the Muslims fasting during their "Ramadan" period.

For the history of wearing masks during Carnevale, please proceed to the next tip.... Grazie mille!

Photo: That's my little skinny sister (sans make-up) looking half awake here in this romatic city. :-)

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The 4 Musketeers and my little sister (braving the chilly wintry weather) here in Venice during the Venetian CARNEVALE.

The history behind wearing a masquerade during CARNEVALE dates back to the 1700s when the festival and merry-making began on December 26 and lasted right up to Ash Wednesday. Mask-wearing and other unofficial activities still do continue well into the spring.

According to history books, all these non-stop partying and gambling... and general irresponsibility actually led to the eventual decline of the once-mighty Venetian Republic, which had begun to lose its wealth and power with the rise of Dutch and British trade in the 1600s.

After Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice in 1797, the Republic was finished and so were the desultory remnants of the Carnevale.

Moral of the story: Too much partying and merry-making is bad for your health and for the country.

Fast forward to modern times: If you're heading to Venice for the Carnevale, and if you're like my little sister who absolutely abhors cold & chilly weathers, please bring along a super-thick winter coat. However, for people like me - who thrive better in colder temperate climates vs tropical climate - I merely brought along a slightly thicker trench coat. And survived to write share my story ;-)

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Besides its uniqueness, Venice is also a fabulous place for SHOPPING! There are many great shoe stores, wonderful Venetian glass from Murano, hand embroidered table linens from Burano for you to buy.

Lugging your new bags of clothing and other buys through the streets on your way to Marco Polo Airport is no laughing matter either. :-(

EVERYBODY has to lug their own stuff. There is no other way to get to the airport transportation but to haul your bags over several bridges to a (water) taxi stop or a bus stop.

Boyfriends and husbands DEFINITELY come in very handy at such critical moments.... :-)

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