The Venetian Carnival dates to the eleventh century, was abolished by Napoleon in 1797 and revived in 1979, and today it fills the two and a half weeks before Lent with a programme of public events in Piazza San Marco and private masked balls in the palazzi. The mask is the point: the bauta, the moretta, the plague doctor with its long beak. Wearing one on the street is not fancy dress here, it is participation.
The public calendar centres on the square. The Festa delle Marie parade on the first Saturday, the Volo dell'Angelo — the 'Flight of the Angel', in which the previous year's Maria descends on a cable from the Campanile to the stage — on the first Sunday at noon, and the daily best-costume contest, where the elaborately dressed pose on the stage for a jury and several thousand cameras. All of it is free; arrive two hours early for the Volo.
The balls are the other Carnival. The Ballo del Doge and its peers are ticketed evenings in palazzi on the Grand Canal with dinner, orchestras and a strict period-costume rule — rental ateliers in the city can dress you head to foot, and you should book the costume when you book the ticket. Prices are high; the experience is unrepeatable. Mask-making workshops (a couple of hours with a papier-mâché artisan) are the affordable way into the tradition.
Venice hotels fill for both weekends of Carnival and the Tuesday, so book early and consider the quieter weekdays. Bring warm layers — acqua alta and fog are part of the season — and arrive by chauffeur to Piazzale Roma or by water taxi straight to your hotel's landing stage rather than wrestling luggage over the bridges.
Three things to get right
- Volo dell'Angelo at noon on the first Sunday — be in the square by 10.
- Book a ball ticket and the costume rental in the same week.
- Weekdays are calmer and cheaper; both weekends sell out.
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