Venice - Italy - page 305

Carnevale!
Venice may not be throbbing with nightclubs and discothèques, but it has
festivals and special events galore. Most famous of these is Carnival
(“Carnevale di Venezia”), which in its very earliest days earned Venice a
reputation as a city of outrageous hedonism. In a pagan-style inversion of
social order, the Carnevale was a period of non-stop partying leading up
to Lent (today it runs for the 7 days leading to Shrove Tuesday, the day
before Ash Wednesday). Technically, Carnevale is derived from the Latin
term for “Farewell, meat!,” referring to the need to clear the pantry before
the start of the Christian fast. Celebrations were first held in 1162, when
a military ritual ended with the slaying of a bull and 12 pigs in Piazza San
Marco. Annual festivities caught on, and the revelries soon grew into full-
on bacchanalia.
Carnevale has long been associated with the wearing of masks, first
documented in 1268. By the 14th century, laws were being decreed to pre-
vent licentious behavior associated with those concealments, as gangs of
masqueraders were going around town at night performing all manner of
undesirable acts. In 1458, a law had to be passed to prevent men from
dressing up as women in order to gain access to convents. By 1608, the
Council of Ten so feared the moral decline of the Republic that it banned
mask-wearing, with the exception of the days of Carnevale. It was also the
only time when dancing was permitted.
Carnevale was a time of fancy-dress balls and excessive parties. In its
heyday, so called Forze d'Ercole (Feats of Hercules) were enacted in
St. Mark's Square, and a bullfight there culminated in the beast's decapi-
tation before the Doge and his Dogaressa. During the “Volo,” an acrobat

you'll witness today is the same that greeted that French envoy 5 centuries ago. I
never cease to be impressed by the sinking, crumbling palaces made of brick and
mortar but fashioned by hands that seem to have stitched lace and floating tapes-
tries from the hard, rough materials of the building trade.
The Canal curves its way between the train and bus stations in the northwest
and spills into the Bacino di San Marco (St. Mark's Basin) right in front of the Piazza
San Marco. There are regular vaporetto stops all along it, many of them close to
important palaces, museums, and other attractions; look especially for the facade
of Ca' d'Oro, once the most opulent canal-side palazzo, and the squat, single-story
palazzo that houses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The famous Rialto Bridge
lies approximately halfway along the Canal, and is probably the most distinguish-
able feature along its length.
PIAZZA SAN MARCO, AT THE HEART OF IT ALL
Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square)

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is Venice's photographic hot spot,
permanently mobbed by camera-clicking visitors drawn to the thrill of seeing the