Venice & The Venice Carnevale 2010

I returned from my little trip to the Venice Carnevale a few days ago.  As usual there were so many wonderful things to see and fabulous Carnevale characters to see that I ended up taking over 1200 photographs!  Good job my camera chip is BIG!  So what I can share here really is the tip of the ice berg.  A lot of Venice is covered up again and undergoing renovation work, which is a pity for sightseers, albeit very necessary.

The weather was lovely when I arrived in Venice but being the first Sunday of Carnevale the city was really crowded. 

The water front on arrival at San Marco - The campanile bell-tower and Doge's Palace (to the right)

The view along the Riva de la Schiavoni towards The Salute.

On Monday it had calmed down a lot, thankfully, and for the first time ever I was able to get to the further reaches of the city in record time - a result, I think, of the financial recession - I really do think that Venice is suffering as there were definitely fewer people away from St Mark's Square, but it made it faster getting through the narrow streets. I have to say that Venice is now extremely expensive!!

On my last day, there was a high tide - Aqua Alta - and water flooded St Mark's Square in places and by the Rialto the Grand Canal lapped onto the pavements! Luckily it subsided as the morning went on and I did not get wet!!
Aqua Alta by the Rialto

Aqua Alta in front of The Doge's Palace

And so to the Carnevale - here are some of the characters taking part in Carnevale.

"Marie Antoinette" - she is a Carnevale regular and is there every year and this year she wore orange - in Piazza San Marco.

These 2 costumes were amazing and even had LED lights on although you cannot see them very well here!!

This lady's head gear was a work of art, as is the one shown below, and you can see the number of people fighting to get photos of other characters in the background - it can be a "bun fight" at times.  You can see Santa Maria de la Salute in the distance.

And some more fabulous costumes!

Another regular couple of characters I see at the Carnevale - St Mark's Basilica is in the background.

This is an amazing outfit which I saw both in 2009 and 2010 - the costumes cost a lot to make and are so much work one can understand why they have to be re-used.  The person wearing this costume had to be guided as the mask did not allow them to see! 

And the little doggies came too!!

Arrivederci ciao my friends - I hope you enjoyed this little trip to Venice!