Old and New: Part 2 Carnevale Style

I continue my discourse on the old and new as I think of the week Lisa and Steph spent with me in Italy after my weekends in Barcelona and Roma. I had two old friends from high school visit me in a very new experience post-college.

Venezia

Since there is not enough to see in Brescia for a whole week, we started with a weekend in Venice, then they went to Florence while I worked in Brescia and mid-week we met up in Verona [after they stopped in Bologna] for a night and morning. We spent some time together in Brescia and a night in Milan before their departure. Coincidentally, Carnevale happened to line up with their trip. What is Carnevale? It's easiest to describe as the Italian equivalent to Mardi Gras, which is actually French for "Fat Tuesday" [martedì grasso in Italian]. The holiday of Carnevale is the series of celebrations before the Christian season of Lent and eventually Easter. In Venice, Carnevale begins three weekends before Fat Tuesday and we arrived in Venice just in time to experience the second weekend of celebrations. All year round, Venice sports its Carnevale traditions, but the sinking city's visitors go all out during the holiday.

Enchanting

The word that comes to my mind to describe Venice is enchanting. When I studied in Parma the first time in the summer after my freshman year, we went to Venice for the weekend with our teacher who had lived in a small town outside of Venice for two years. She gave us an inside tour of the city and I was enchanted. Similarly, by the time the girls and I got to Venice after their arrival in Milan, it was already dark as we ventured through the Venetian alleyways and walked along small canals to find our hotel and a place for dinner. Part of the experience of going to Venice is getting lost and although almost every alleyway directs you to "Piazza San Marco" or "Ponte Rialto" with a single arrow, you will get lost and then suddenly find yourself in a large Piazza with the rest of the city. Our first night we ate around Campo Santa Margherita and the atmosphere reminded us of college on a summer night where everyone is hanging and partying outside. Except in Venice, they were wearing costumes.

Some Traditional Costumes and Masks

Our Traditional Masks

Now the idea of Carnevale is to party and celebrate before Lent. But how exactly? Venice is known for its traditional costumes and masks. Originally, the idea behind the wearing of masks was to allow the full expression of the population since masks hide the identity of social classes. It kind of makes me think of Topsy Turvy day from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame where all social roles are supposed to be turned upside down. Anything goes during the Festival of Fools or Carnevale. The full-decked out costumes in the main square Piazza San Marco are really a sight. People spend thousands on these costumes just to stand in the square and be admired. Granted, part of going to Venice for Carnevale is to stop and admire everyone’s costumes. Other than just enjoying Carnevale activities, we went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, San Marco's Basilica, Doge's Palace with the Bridge of Sighs and the Rialto Bridge. Venice was a rich city and so one of the greatest treasures is the "Pala d'Oro" behind the altar in the Basilica di San Marco. It shows the wealth of the Byzantine Empire with gold and 2,000 precious stones. Palazzo Ducale or Doge's Palace housed the Ponte Sospiri or Bridge of Sighs connecting the prison with the rest of the palace ... once prisoners were condemned to life in prison they walked across the Bridge of Sighs where they had one last glimpse of the outside world through the window and appropriately would sigh in response to their final glimpse of humanity.

St. Mark's Basilica [part not under scaffolding]

Pala d'Oro up close

Gold and 2,000 Precious Stones

Doge's Palace with dome of St. Mark's Basilica

Lastly, the Ponte Rialto or Rialto stands on the Grand Canal with shops along the way. Here, as in any other bridge in Italy or in the rest of Europe, you can find locks attached to the supports. A modern Italian tradition is for couples to buy a lock, inscribe their initials on it or not, and lock it on a bridge throwing the key over their shoulders into the water so that their hearts are “locked together” forever since the key is forever gone. The first time I heard about it long ago was from a music video by Tiziano Ferro, a famous Italian pop singer. In fact, I just learned that the concept came from a book Tre metri sopra il cielo by Federico Moccia which was made into a movie.   I think it’s really a sweet tradition and it makes me smile to see locks upon locks attached to bridges everywhere. I’ll be picking up that book next. On our final morning in Venice, we stopped by the Campo San Trovaso where we watched gondoliers make and repair gondolas before we stopped and took a ride ourselves. We learned some trivial facts like that Venice is sinking 3 mm every year and you can see where the old front steps along the canals used to be under water. Once we left the gondola ride, we verified with each other that in fact, our gondolier hummed to us “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. I might not call Venice a whole “new” world, but an enchanting world, yes.

Locks!

Gondolas being repaired

Our Gondola ride : )

After the girls explored Florence and Bologna, we made a mid-week stop in Verona and then hung around Brescia; two cities with contrasting archives of time. Since you read about Verona in November when I met up with another assistant, you won’t be surprised to know that Verona is considered a city frozen in time, the time of the Scaglieri dynasty in power during the Renaissance. The city structure and ambiance remains from this time period. On the other hand, if you remember one of my first blogs in Brescia after I visited the castle, you’ll remember that Brescia instead is a city evolved in each era with remains from all periods tucked throughout the city streets. After visiting my favorite Roman ruins of the Capitolium in the old forum of Roman Brixia, we chanced upon the Palazzo Martinengo where excavations led to the unveiling of remains layered by the Iron, Augustan, Flavian, and Medieval ages. Each era layered upon another, constantly evolving and growing. In fact, Brescia is building a subway which when completed, will make it the smallest city in the world to have a subway; except that they have found more and more Roman ruins while excavating and so the construction has been stalled. Although it rained most of our weekend in Venice, we had sun in Brescia as we happened upon a chocolate festival in one of the main squares. Quoting Lisa, “how could you go wrong with a day full of sun, roman ruins and chocolate?”

With La Statua di Giulietta in Verona

At the Roman Gates to Verona

Roman Theater, Brescia

The Capitolium, Brescia

Old Duomo and New Duomo, Brescia

The second weekend of Carnevale I spent in Venice with old friends Lisa and Steph, the third and final weekend before Fat Tuesday, I spent with new friends in Viareggio on the coast between the Italian Riviera and Pisa. Patrick and Abby and I hopped on the train when Lisa and Steph caught their flights home. As Venice is known for its traditional Carnevale celebration, Viareggio is known for its modern Carnevale celebration. We went to the large parade where we saw floats of all shapes and sizes, even hosting political commentaries on Berlusconi and Obama. No more were the traditional costumes and masks. In fact, we felt out of place with only our masks as costumes. Think Halloween, times ten, on crack. We enjoyed the parade, the crazy nighttime block party at the port, sitting at the beach, but mainly the sun. Viareggio was south enough of Lombardy that all the fog, rain and cold weather we were used to was old news. It was just a really lovely trip that gave us a breath of fresh air and a very modern take on one of the traditional celebrations in Italy. 

Burlamacco symbol of Carnevale in Viareggio

View of Parade from Ferris Wheel
Below: Berlusconi becoming a monster
Obama as a magician with Osama bin Laden on his hat

As I’m getting ready to post this blog, we are closer and closer to Easter and so we can all figure out how much I’m behind in my blogging if Carnevale is BEFORE Easter and we are quickly approaching the holiday. I’ll conclude with a final Carnevale celebration that did not occur before Fat Tuesday like the others but the weekend after “Fat Thursday” which is apparently known as the middle of Lent and the one day you can break your Lenten promises. Pat and I took a day trip to Bergamo Alta, on a sunny Sunday a couple of weeks ago. We saw the main squares, the churches, the Botanical Gardens and a mid-Lent Carnevale celebration. We took the funicular up to the upper city [alta] to explore the historical center, but also saw parts of the lower city [Bergamo Bassa] set-up for their parade near the station. 

The View from the walls of Bergamo Alta

Patriotic Costumes for Carnevale, Bergamo Alta

Again, I see that the old and new stick out in different ways. The preserved traditions of Venice’s Carnevale [and stuck-in-time Verona] enchant and attract visitors. Yet, the modern displays and celebrations of Carnevale in Viareggio are absolutely worth a trip. Then Bergamo Alta waits for half of Lent to pass before breaking lose. You just have to appreciate the differences and the varying experiences of it all: old, new, topsy turvy, traditional, modern, early, late … and what is still evolving. 

Viareggio

By the Sea, Viareggio