From February 14 to March 4, 2025, the city of Venice is “invaded” by the famous Venice Carnival.
The Venice Carnival has its center in the famous St. Mark’s Square, but during Carnival the whole city becomes a huge and colorful stage and public and private events are organized that attract thousands of people.
In 1094 the Carnival was already mentioned in a document of the Doge, and in 1269 the Venetian Senate decreed that the night of Lent should be considered a feast day (Shrove Tuesday).
On Carnival days all Venetians, regardless of their social status masqueraded and partied in the city’s calli.
Carnival was interrupted for a long period, that of French and then Austrian rule, to resume in 1979. Today it is one of the best known and most famous Carnivals in the world.
The ceremony that kicks off the Venice Carnival is the Flight of the Angel when a girl hanging from steel ropes flies from St. Mark’s bell tower onto the stage set up in the square. The origins of this flight are rooted in the history of theancient Republic of Venice, when in the 1500s a Turkish tightrope walker walked on a rope suspended between a boat docked at the pier in St. Mark’s Square and the square’s bell tower.
The grand event is inspired by the Venice of the 1700s with actors and masks also enacting ancient crafts. The most minute crafts are projected on a large screen.
But the Venice Carnival is also a great festival of imagination and creativity: often those who participate come to Venice bringing with them costumes with which to experience the Carnival, and in the city’s calli and piazzas one can meet a wide variety of characters wearing precious and extravagant masks. A spectacle for the eyes that invades the whole city.
The schedule of all events is on the website>>>
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The Venice Carnival is one of the most famous in the world.
But there are other Carnival events in Italy. Check out a selection on ItalybyEvents>>>
