This weekend I took a train and went to Venice. Since it was Carnivale, a couple hundred thousand other people all had the same idea. The streets outside the bus station were packed, and in all the major piazzas and streets were thousands of masked, costumed, revelers. We took a ferry to Murano—the island on which all the Venetian glass is made and watched a man make a glass cat. The island, which was far away from most of the party of Carnivale, was how I imagined Venice—calm and serene, with rowers gliding through the canals and little picturesque bridges every few blocks.
At night, back in the city proper, Piazza San Marco was lit up—washed in a hundred colors, and in the square itself, hundreds of thousands of people stared at costumed characters having a tea party in the small cafes, danced and listened to the live act which was performing in a huge opened mask.
In the smaller piazzas were smaller concerts, men and women selling masks and clothes and glass and cheap purses—the streets themselves were concerts, as men and women dressed as trashcans and frogs danced to a drum circle that some clowns started outside of a small café.
In the morning, when if finally began to get light, the rest of the city started to show itself—with the piazzas mostly empty and the public ferries with plenty of room to sit, the sun rose on bronze green domes and palaces. The city itself is beautiful, and I wish that I had been able to see more of the architecture.
When I went back to San Marco in the morning, thousands of pigeons were cleaning up the mess from the partiers the night before. Just after sunrise, as San Marco was just starting to wake up, models in full Carnivale regalia posed for photographers along the water, handing out their cards to professionals.
Shortly after exploring San Marco, I headed back to the train station—which seemed considerably less crowded than the day before—the crowd arrived as I was leaving, when the entire train station was packed with people streaming constantly to the party from 11-1230.
Hi Leah! great pictures. I simply CAN’T believe there are motorboats in the canals of Venice. I’m going to forget I saw that and just keep thinking that it’s all romantic gondolas, all the time.
Hey there!
Sounds like things are going great. Carnivale – in Venice, at least – sounds like a more glamorous affair than Carnaval in Rio. It was fun here, but it mostly consisted of general raucousness on the streets. That and barbecue on the beach, which was lovely. Anyway, good luck in classes and all. Mine start tomorrow, and I think I´m going to be taking a course on New Testament Greek, which I thought you´d appreciate. Anyway, looks like fun. Keep us posted!
Um abraço.