The religious festival of Carnival or Carnivale as it is known in Italian, is taken rather seriously on the predominantly Catholic peninsula. This occasion of joy and celebration occurs some 40 days before Easter and is seen as a final oppurtunity to cut loose, celebrate and indulge oneself before Lent begins. The 40 days leading up to Easter in which Christians prepare for the crucifixion, death and ressurection of Christ by making personal sacrifices themselves. The event is celebrated in many cities, the most well know of which is Venice.

Carnival, or ‘Carnevale’ in Italian, is a celebration which occurs some 40 days before Easter. It is a final opportunity to eat well and enjoy oneself before the restrictions of Lent take hold, and is celebrated with enthusiasm in many Italian cities, especially Venice. The tradition of getting dressed up at Carnival is one that goes back many year to a time in which the class system played a major role in society. The aim of wearing the disguises and masks in places like Venice for example were so that no one knew who you were and so that people were able to mix freely as identiy and who one was, or more to the point who one wasn’t didn’t play a significant role. The Venetian carnival masks are known as ‘maschere’ and are often handmade and hand painted, they make great souvenirs or gifts.

The main point of Carnival is fun. Children throw confetti in the streets, people play pranks on eachother and tell jokes, colourful parades make their way through the streets, balls take place and the streets are packed out with all sorts of forms of entertatinment, and music, complimented by the great variety of food and drink on offer.
Carnevale is a time when the pressures of everyday life are forgotten in a joyous rush of celebration, where the rules that shape the rest of the year do not necessarily apply. Children throw confetti in the streets, and pranks and jokes are tolerated and expected. Parades, balls and parties of all kinds are packed out, with entertainment and music complementing the food and drink on offer. The Gaudy gondola parades and the masked parades in St. Mark’s Square are the unmissable events of the carnival season. The Cannaregion distric also hosts a special carnival event for children which means that noone is left out of the celebrations.

Venice is not the only Italian city to go wild at this time of year; Viareggio on the Tuscan coast puts on a parade of papiermache floats. Away from the mainland, Oristano on Sardinia add an equestrian theme to the proceedings, with its La Sartigilia festival featuring a horse race and jousting tournament. At Ivrea in Piedmont, festival goers throw oranges at each other in celebration.
The saying ‘A Carnevale Ogni Scherzo Vale’, or ‘anything goes at Carnival’ perhaps best sums up the feeling of liberation and celebration that surrounds this festival. Visitors to Italy at this time of year should be ; they might not want to come home.

picture: Alaskan Dude/ flickr.com

Simply walking around the city and its iconic locations should be enough to get anyone’s romantic juices flowing. While locations such as the Bridge of Sighs and the Piazza San Marco are world famous, one of the most attractive walking routes in Venice is known as the Fondamenta delle Zattere. This route follows the Giudecca Canal, beginning at San Basilio and ending at Punta della Salute. An old customs house can be seen here, and the view, over San Marco bay to San Giorgio island and as far as the Lido, is difficult to beat.

The Bridge of Sighs may sound romantic, and has certainly become so over the years, with its beautiful Baroque decoration and Istrian stone. However, the bridge originally was used to transport prisoners from the Palazzo Ducale, the venue for trials, to the Piombi, Venice’s old prisons. The ‘sighs’ being made by the prisoners were certainly not of a romantic nature!

Venetian food is known for the seasonality of its ingredients, and a dinner for two in the city is something special. While the bacari, or ‘pubs’, offer tapas-like dishes known as ‘cichetti’, usually accompanied with an ‘ombra’, literally a ‘shadow’ but here a small glass of wine. The seafood dishes are superb, and the region is well-known for its risottos. A good place for a coffee break is Caffè Florian, one of Venice’s more famous venues. Located underneath the portico of the new Procuratie, this cafe has been going since 1720, and its interiors are stirring examples of 19th Century luxury.

A great focus for a trip to Venice is a visit to the opera or the ballet. One venue is the Gran Teatro la Fenice, recently reconstructed after a destructive fire. As a way of topping off a romantic weekend away, it is hard to beat.

Picture: gnuckx/ flickr.com

]]> http://www.tourism-italia.com/a-romantic-trip-to-venice/feed/ 0 http://www.tourism-italia.com/casinos-to-boost-italian-tourism/ http://www.tourism-italia.com/casinos-to-boost-italian-tourism/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:15:47 +0000 admin http://www.tourism-italia.com/?p=290 According to Reuters, Italian Tourism Minister Vittoria Brambilla is planning on opening 10 to 15 luxury casinos to boost the Italian tourism sector. These casinos would be housed in five star hotels and form part of a 19 point plan set out by Brambilla to help tourism in Italy, especially in the poorer southern areas. However, her plans still need to be approved by the government and the local municipalities where the casinos will be situated. There are currently four northern municipal-controlled casinos in Venice, San Remo, Campione near Como and San Vincent. The new casinos will include two re-opened casinos in Taormina in Sicily and San Pellegrino Terme near Bergamo. So far this year, casinos have taken 347 million euros in bets with Venice taking the largest amount. If Brambilla’s plans are approved then these new casinos could be the boost that Southern Italy needs to finally break out of the shadow of the North.