Carnevale looms, OY VEY!

On the way to church this morning we walked through San Marco Square. We do this every Sunday morning as our church is about 5 minutes behind the Basilica. It is almost always a pleasure to see the square in the earlyish morning with only a hundred people there and the Basilica's domes, mosaics, and marble encrustation all gleaming in the morning sun.  A Byzantine pleasure.

This morning, however, San Marco Square was taking on the aspect of a circus in the midst of setup. There is a giant fabricated covered performance stage with its attendent runways, crowd control fences, cables for lighting and TV, etc. Plus a roped off area in which will be placed 500 temporary seats so lucky visitors can witness the selection of the Maries, local beauties selected in a newspaper poll as they vie to become the de facto queen of carnevale. On the evening of Fat Tuesday there will be 75,000 people here. Some will be sober.

Carnevale in times past drew many people who participated in the spirit of carnevale, attending costume parties, fancy dress balls, dressing in traditional Venetian period dress while other invented more contemporary costumes (for instance, a dozen eggs filing their way through the crowds). They acted sensibly, with decorum. Posing for pictures, enjoyng themselves and giving pleasure to others. During a good part of the run-up to Fat Tuesday, it is still, in a reduced way, the same. Unfortunately, today the costume wearers are far fewer and the majority come to take pictures of the first group, and I guess to be part of the crowd, any crowd, and many teenagers come to booze. Last year photographs of semi-naked boozers in San Marco, before they were arrested, made the local papers. San Marco is definitely the place not to be on Fat Tuesday night. If you plan to be there, wear your wellies and your miner's hats. Better to find a nice restaurant a distance from S Marco. Mi  raccomando.