Venice - Italy - page 306

would slide along a rope strung from the top of the Bell Tower to the
Palazzo Ducale's Scala dei Giganti, and present the Doge with a bouquet
of flowers.
During the 18th century, Carnevale reached its pinnacle, and was
deeply entrenched in the city's spirit of decadence and moral decline; the
world's wealthy revelers came here to taste its infamous pleasures. Part of
the allure was the sense of anonymity granted by the masks. Whether you
were dressed as a character from the commedia dell'arte or something far
more extravagant, no one could identify you or assess your social status;
wanton flirtation and open debauchery became permissible. You can get a
sense of what the streets were like during Carnevale in the film version of
Henry James's The Wings of the Dove.
The popularity of Carnevale waned consistently until the 1930s, when
it was banned outright by Mussolini. Only in 1979 did the annual event
start up again. Certainly, Carnevale is not the same as it was in the 1700s;
today, there's a great deal of sponsorship and marketing and expensive
parties and events, not to mention hordes of perplexed tourists afraid to
participate. If you want to get the best out of the experience, you'd do
well to actually don a costume and mask and get out in the streets.
(Be warned that for many, Carnevale is just an excuse to get drunk and
misbehave—usually in and around St. Mark's Square.) Get your mask and
costume from Nicolao Atelier (Calle del Magazin, Cannaregio 5590/a;
% 041-5209749), the city's largest costume-supplier. If you make a prior
appointment, you can also visit the workshop, where you can see cos-
tumes being sewn.
city's most celebrated attractions: the whimsical Basilica San Marco and the
urbane Palazzo Ducale, which stand side by side like some testament to the yin
and yang of Venice.
I'll assume you've arrived here by boat and thus approached St. Mark's Square
the way foreign dignitaries would have during the heyday of the Venetian
Republic. Once you climb off the vessel (at San Marco Giardinetti vaporetto stop),
turn right and walk just a few meters until you are standing between the two
statue-capped columns that once represented the entrance to the city. These are
the Columns of San Marco (topped by the winged lion of St. Mark in bronze)
and San Teodoro (topped by a marble statue of the city's original patron saint
standing on the sacred crocodile of Egypt).
In less civilized times (when capital punishment still prevailed in Europe; it has
since been abolished throughout), open-air executions were carried out between
these two columns. Public humiliations and other extreme punishments were also