Buon Carnevale !

{8 March}: today signs the last day  of Carnival celebrations, make sure you have plenty of treats and lots of laughter! To celebrate my Carnevale over here in the UK I will pay a visit to a newly openned pasticceria Italiana over in South London, an why not I could even  be a wearing a mask, a venetian one of course!!! …

The Carnival has very old origins. It is a festival that celebrates the passage from winter into spring, a time when seemingly anything is possible, including the illusion where the most humble of classes become the most powerful by wearing masks on their faces.

The official start of the Venice Carnival dates back to 1296, when the Senate of the Republic made the Carnival official with an edict declaring the day before Lent a public holiday.

After an interruption lasting almost two centuries, the tradition of Carnival was rediscovered by the Municipality in 1980 and since then it has taken place every year with success.

Venice discovers in 2011 the vibrant soul of its “theme” Carnival. “Ottocento” the nineteenth century evocation, will outline the Carnival, edition 2011, scheduled from February 19th till March 8th.

It will be developed among romantic suggestions and Risorgimento impulses, while wearing its charming redingote and top hats, corsets and crinolines.

Photography by Walter M. from the last edition of ‘Il Carnevale di Venezia 2011’.