The magic of Carnevale offers a romantic getaway for single travel to Venice, Italy

Wanderlust women are daring, willing to take adventures, to step into the unknown for the journey of a lifetime.  Often, solo travel adventures yield amazing stories, experienced by one and shared with friends and family long after the journey ends.  Rarely does a single woman traveler taste life in such a way that she wants to hold that memory in her heart, just for her, not to share with the anyone because in doing so its mystery, its romance will somehow be violated when shared with others.  Carnevale is the type of travel adventure that yields such memories and nowhere are they as vivid as in Venice, Italy, where we find ourselves with Venetian authority and co-host of Savory Adventures, Barry Frangipane for an experience that is at once romantic, mysterious, alluring, and oh so Italian!

Carnevale in Venice – What images does this bring to mind? Lavish parades and street parties like the ones in Rio De Janeiro?  Throngs of drunken tourists going topless for beads, alongside the private pageantry of the krewes at Mardi Gras in New Orleans?  Venice’s Carnevale is not like either of these, and has a flavor, a style, a magic all its own.

The wearing of masks started here in Venice back in the 13th century as a way for the different social classes to interact without fear or penalty. The masks allowed revelers to hide their true identities while debauchery ran wild.  Men wore masks and entered convents disguised as women.   Gambling, heavy drinking, and sex in the hidden corridors was the norm. Venice became known as THE place to party in Europe.  As the years passed, the wearing of masks was restricted to Lent in an an attempt to restore morality in the Venetian Republic.   In fact, it appears that Carnevale itself may have played a part in the Republic’s eventual decline, as less and less citizens were interested in fighting. Then, in 1797 after the Austrians invaded, the wearing of masks was prohibited.

In 1979, the citizens of Venice restarted the tradition of Carnevale.  Locals studied the art of the old mask makers, and started making masks and costumes again.  Each year the festival grows more popular.

Attending your first Carnevale is like a first date with a quiet lover.   It starts out on a cool morning with barely a sound.   Then, as the day progresses, a few people with masks start to appear on the streets.  One colorful costume, then another.  Street musicians and puppeteers start to appear seemingly from nowhere.  Then at high noon, as if awakened by the gods, an angel flies from the bell tower to the Doge’s Palace and the love affair with Carnevale begins.  Small local festivals with food and music appear on side alleys throughout the city.  The Pope (or someone in costume looking like the Pope) walks by with his bishops marching down the alley, and a group of nuns trailsbehind.   Parades of gondolas and other small boats filled with Venetiani in costume float down the Rio Cannaregio to the Grand Canal.  You are in love.

The smell of fritelle and crepes fills the air. Fire eaters, jugglers and clowns fill the stage at St. Mark’s Square.  Sipping a cappuccino, you sit outside Cafe Florian curious about the people behind the masks you see everywhere.

Enticed by the music, you are called into the cocktail party at Cafe Quadri.  Belly dancers perform while you eat, drink, and gaze out at the costumes in the piazza below as Venetians did hundreds of years ago.  Dazed, you walk into the quiet of the night as a slight fog seems to hide the canals from view, and the music fades behind you.  You seem to sleep for a thousand years.

Now seduced by the festivities, you attend your first gala ball. Putting on your costume from the 1700s, a strange sensation comes over you. Donning the mask puts you in complete anonymity. Suddenly, you feel free and unencumbered.  It seems almost a forbidden pleasure as you dance into the night with others, never seeing their faces or knowing their names. You return, night after night to other balls and celebrations throughout the city, always wanting more.

A colorful escapade

Then, as quickly as your lover appeared, he is gone.  He disappears into the thick winter Venice fog, only to reappear next year.  Upon leaving the city, you wonder what was it that grabbed hold of you for this magical week, then suddenly let go?  It was the magic of Carnevale in Venice.

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