One of the most famous and visited carnivals in the world has started - Venice Carnival 2023, which will last from February 4 to 21, with the main part between February 11 and 21.
Venice Carnival is an extraordinary event that you must experience at least once in your life. We have collected for you the most interesting experiences in Venice in time of the Venetian carnival.
1. Watch the original carnival
Venice was already a tourist destination in the 18th century. At that time, courtesans, casinos and the original carnival also attracted visitors. The party atmosphere is brilliantly expressed in the paintings of Pietro Longhi and Gabriela Bella in two Venetian museums.
2. Visit Casanova in prison
The most famous of all revelers was Casanova. His infamous seduction was the highest expression of Venetian debauchery. He ended up in the prison of the Doge's Palace - you can also visit his cell.
3. Stealing a dead body
In 828, two merchants from Alexandria stole the body of Saint Mark, the city's patron saint, and reburied him triumphantly in the Doge's Basilica. The facade was later decorated with Roman sculpture, columns and bronze horses looted from Constantinople.
4. Venetian masks
Masks were so used and abused by Venetian gamblers and prostitutes seeking anonymity that by the 18th century they were banned outside of carnival time.
5. Mandatory traditional cloak
If you wear a mask, you will need an elegant cape - a tabarra, it is a traditional Venetian style.
6. Large Venetian balls
Venice remains the world's top destination for romance, which flourishes at carnival balls that include dinner and entertainment.
7. Art on the Grand Canal
Perhaps the greatest romantic move was made in the 1840s. Prince Troubetzkoy of Russia gave Marie Taglioni, an Italian ballerina, the Ca d'Oro palace on the Grand Canal - now an art museum.
8. 200 years of ceremony
Napoleon ordered an end to costuming and public celebrations when he took control of Venice in 1797. The carnival was only revived in 1979 as a way to promote tourism - and has been an incredible success ever since.
9. Gondoliers
The main brokers of illicit Venetian liaisons were the gondoliers, who provided discreet door-to-door transportation—at least in the days when passengers were hidden in tented cabins.
10. The most beautiful bus trip
If you can't afford a gondola, the number one water bus or vaporetto that runs along the Grand Canal is by far the most beautiful bus ride in the world - especially if you have one of the front open-air seats.
11. Venice Opera
The Venice Opera House has burned down three times since Carnival and Casanova and was last rebuilt in 2004. Rossini premiered some of his operas here.
12. Flight of the Angel
A beauty queen in an extravagant carnival costume descending a rope in Mark's Square? Yes. The Angel's Flight is one of the most popular carnival spectacles.
