The Fun Faces of Carnivale!

We had no idea that we were leaving Mardi Gras and walking into Carnivale!  We heard rumors that Italy was in the throes of it, but we saw no evidence of it in our trip to Verona, so we brushed off the warnings of crowds and chaos and blissfully headed off to Venice.  HOLY MOLEY!  It was packed, wall to wall with people.  I hate crowds.  I detest them with a fiery, burning passion.  And yet...... This was not so bad!  It was actually.... dare I say.... fun?!

We had a marvelous time wandering the streets working our way through the crowds to see the sights.  Everyone was dressed up for Carnivale and the atmosphere was a cheerful one.  Everyone was there to have a good time and it was fun!  Lots and lots and lots of people were dressed up.  It was kind of like Halloween, but I have no clue where so many grown ups got their awesome costumes. I need to google it to learn more, but there were lots and lots of regular folks dressed up.  Then there were incredible, ornate costumed couples walking grandly around.  They would stop for photos and give a regal nod to you after you snapped their picture.  It was pretty cool.  We got to St Mark's Square and it was jam packed with people, and sprinkled all throughout were more incredibly costumed people posing for photos.  I could not figure out if they are Carnival Royalty or some such thing to do this, or just folks who like to dress up and get attention.  (That's what I need to google!)

So, there were some regular folks we saw strolling around, and some fabulously costumed folks strolling or standing. I loved it when there were whole families dressed up!  I'll get to the other (AMAZING) pictures of Venice in a bit, but for now, here are some of the great costumes we saw there!