Venice Carnival: 6-16 February 2010
The Venice Carnival is the highlight of the city’s year. A two-week series of processions, masquerades, traditional ceremonies, music and all-round festivities fills the canals, squares and palaces of this ancient city. The Carnival adopts a new theme each year.
St Mark’s Square, the theatres and the famous campi burst into life with musical, theatrical, acrobatic and dance performances. The whole city is filled with revellers from all over the world and, for those with a more aristocratic bent, there are dozens of masked balls, brunches in period costume and gala dinners to attend.
The carnival, with its attendant tradition of mask-wearing, has existed in some form or another since the 13th century. The masks themselves - along with the traditional bauto (hood and cape), tabarro (cloak) and tricorn hat - were favoured because they conferred complete anonymity on their wearers.
As night falls, the masked balls come to life; the gothic Palazzo Pisani-Moretta hosts the grandest. Guests arrive in gondolas along the moonlit Grand Canal for the Ballo del Doge, Mascheranda Ball or Ballo Tiepolo (11 February). The candlelit palaces host a whirlwind of Venetian cuisine, baroque music, ballroom dancing and sumptuous costumes. Alternatively, the supremely elegant Gran Ballo della Cavalchina at the Teatro La Fenice greets guests on 13 February with a gilded auditorium filled with dancing couples, acrobats and live music.
Book your Venice Hotel to see one of the world’s most spectacular carnivals
