Carnivale and Guests!

Carnivale!

Venice absolutely transforms during carnivale.  What I had grown accustomed to as a quiet, rainy city morphed into a bustling, crowded, sunny, colorful, hot tranny mess.  The amount of people in the city practically quadrupled in one weekend.  The walk to school was nearly impossible, and at one point over the last weekend, we couldn't even get into our campo because the flow of people coming from San Marco was too intense to penetrate.  Native Venetians treat carnivale more like Halloween and they dress up your usual costumes.  Some of my favorites: smurfs, lamps, one guy dressed as Elton John, but singing Neil Diamond, and Minnie Mouse (I saw like 6).  But really, any funny hat, mask, or wig will do.  The more ridiculous the better.  The kids are the cutest, some wearing traditional venetian carnival garb: hoop skirt dress, banana curled wig, and tiara.  

The weirdest people are the ones who hang out in San Marco simply to get their pictures taken.  You've probably seen a picture of these people, they wear the full masks, and a surreal outfit, usually centered around a color theme.  The more tulle and taffeta the better.  And if you can balance a giant turban on you head with bobbles and things hanging from it thats good too.  

As cool as it is to see these people, it makes you think of who is behind the mask.  They cover their whole faces.  Its a little creepy.  What kind of person invests all that money into that kind of getup, and then wanders around the city, not saying a word, having their pictures taken?

There were also lots of street performers here.  The Peruvian pan flute band we saw in Bologna popped up at the train station, feathered head dresses and all, and a unicyclist/juggler was in our campo for most of the week.  We had memorized his routine by the end.  

At night many campos had bands or DJ's set up and there were outdoor dance parties until about 12.  Campo Santa Margherita was particularly popular, so was San Luca.  I wore my mask, and had a good time.

As fun as Carnivale was, I'm glad to have the calm Venice I know back.  Unfortunately, its just going to get steadily more and more crowded as the weather gets warmer and tourist season is in full swing.  I will miss something though.  FRITTELLE!!  They are these pastires that they have only for Carnivale. They are like donuts, but rounder and filled with cream, nutella, zabaione or tiramisu mix.  They are absolutely delicious.  Little round powdered sugar covered mounds of goodness.  I will miss them most of all.  SO MUCH.  It's ok, this just means I'll have to do some intensive research into other pastries ;).  

Guests!

For the first weekend of Carnivale, Christina came to visit!  It was lovely having her and sharing Venice with someone.  We saw the ceremony of the angel at San Marco, which is where they tie some poor girl to a harness, dress her up like an angel, and "fly" her from the top of the Campinale to the stage they set up in the middle of the square.  It was cool, but of course, my camera died just as she stepped off the ledge.  She was supposedly a celebrity, but she must have been Italian, because we didn't recognize her.  

For the second weekend, Sarah and Courtney were here, but we never met up.  There were some communication errors and phone numbers were never exchanged.  I think they had a good time tho? I was also sick that weekend, (yes again) so it was probably for the best.  I can't wait to see them when I go to London :)

And then this past weekend, my cousin Dave came to visit! It was really nice having family here with me. I wish I could have spent more time with him, but I was at a collage workshop at the scuola with British Architect Jeffery James for most of the weekend.  (Max and I won prizes at the end!)  We went out for dinner, and I took him to Santa Margherita.  I made him get the typical venetian drink, the Spriz, and the typical venetian late night snack, Kebabs!  We also watched Slumdog Millionaire, the best movie ever, and I am now going through an M.I.A obsession.