Who Was That Masked Man?

Celebrate Carnevale (Carnival) in Venice, Italy

Venice's top event is the theatrical bacchanalia of Carnevale, an unbridled celebration preceding Lent, the period of penitence and abstinence prior to Easter. Its name is derived from the Latin carnem levare ("to take meat away"), since many people gave up meat for the duration of Lent.

Today's Carnevale events, masked balls, and costumes usually evoke that 18th-century swan song. Many of the concerts around town are free, when baroque to samba to gospel to Dixieland jazz fill the piazze and byways; check with the tourist office (www.turismovenezia.it) and Carnival office (www.carnevale.venezia.it) for a list of events.

Although Carnevale lasts no more than five to ten days today (culminating in the Friday to Tuesday period preceding Ash Wednesday), 18th-century revelers came from all over Europe to take part in festivities that began months ahead, gaining crescendo until their raucous culmination at midnight on Shrove Tuesday.

As the Venetian economy declined and its colonies and trading posts fell to other powers, the Republic in its swan song turned to fantasy and escapism. The faster its decline was, the longer and more unlicensed became its anything-goes merrymaking. Masks became ubiquitous, affording anonymity and pardoning a thousand sins. They permitted the fishmonger to attend the ball and dance with the baroness, the properly married to carry on as if they were not. The doges condemned it and the popes denounced it, but nothing could dampen Carnevale spirit until Napoléon arrived in 1797.

Resuscitated in 1980 by local powers to fill the empty winter months, Carnevale is calmer nowadays, though just barely. The born-again festival got off to a shaky start, met at first with indifference and skepticism, but in the years since, it has grown from strength to strength. The new Carnevale is at its dazzling best now with two decades under its belt, a harlequin patchwork of musical and cultural events, many of them free.

Musical events are staged in any of the city's dozens of piazze—from reggae and zydeco to jazz to baroque and chamber music—and special art exhibits are mounted at museums and galleries. The recent involvement of international corporate commercial sponsors has met with a mixed reception, though it seems to be the direction of the future.

Carnevale isn’t for those who dislike crowds—the crowds are what it's all about. Truly enjoying Carnevale means giving in to the spontaneity of magic and surprise around every corner, the mystery behind every mask. Period masks and costumes are everywhere. Groups travel in coordinated getups ranging from a contemporary passel of Felliniesque clowns to the court of the Sun King in all its wigged-out drag-queen best.

The places to be seen in costume (only appropriate costumes need apply) are the historic cafes lining Piazza San Marco, the Florian being the unquestioned Command Post. Don't expect to be seated in full view at a window seat unless your costume is straight off the stage of the local opera house.

tel. +39-041-241-0570, www.carnevale.venezia.it