Carnevale in Venezia

After a week of exams and checking every train schedule in Italy I rewarded myself yesterday with a daytrip to Venice for Italy’s most extravagant celebration of Carnevale. Knowing from my quick trip there with my family over Christmas vacation how magical the city on water is, but also how expensive the trains are to get there I decided I had to find a better way to get there besides the 75 Euro round trip Eurostar train. A little internet research and I found it: leaving at 6:30 a.m. from Florence’s Santa Maria Novella station the cheap train runs to Bologna where you can catch a regional train to Venice for about 16 euros one way. In order to avoid a steep hostel price I opted for the late train back the same night, getting in a little after midnight, and ended up with 10 straight hours of Venetian Carnevale fun for a little over 30 euros in transportation.
My first trip to Venice the sun shone the entire time and I was introduced to the labyrinthine city bathed in an intense winter sunlight. Yesterday I was not so lucky. The weather forecast called for rain all day long, and for once the Italian meteorologists were right. I discovered though, that some fog, clouds, and a little more water doesn’t detract from the spell of Venice, and that the magic of Carnevale proceeds just the same.
I spent the entire day on my feet, wandering the streets with a friend of mine from school, finding the famed San Marco piazza despite the confusing signs and winding alleyways that litter the city. Once we were there neither of us knew exactly what to expect but Carnevale found us. Within a few hours we both had our masks painted on by the many makeup artists by the water side, we had toured the inside of the beautiful golden San Marco Cathedral, seen a marching band completely in costume, and witnessed the Maschere (masks) of Carnevale.
Venetians and other Italians use Carnevale as a time to put on their masks, hide their identities and indulge in sinful behavior before Lent begins. Unlike most European street performers, these people are for the most part just locals, Carnevale is a serious event for them, and their costumes prove it, they walk through the piazzas parading their work through the masses, posing for pictures, without asking for anything in return. It is the one time out of the year that the Venetians themselves become the spectacle of their city, instead of the miraculous city itself.
After a full ten hours of overstimulation, nonstop walking, eating, drinking and neverending drizzle, the train ride home was full of Italian University students making their way back to Bologna, under their masks, glitter, and confetti. A group in our car filled the entire two hours with singing every song they could think of at the top of their lungs. I kept thinking someone would ask them to stop, but the train operators just kept walking through, ignoring the scene of minor chaos, I guess that’s Carnevale.