I have been to Venice twice, but in 2023 I decided to go to the opening of the famous carnival.
Attracted cheap tickets to Milan from Podgorica, where I now live. I thought: when else will I be so lucky in a neighboring country and be able to get to one of the most important carnivals on the planet. From Milan to Venice can be comfortably reached by train in a couple of hours and 10-20 €.
The carnival opened on Saturday and Sunday, February 4 and 5. The main event of the first day — the Opening Parade on the Grand Canal – was scheduled for 20:00. The pictures on the carnival’s website promised a swim of wonderful boats with artists accompanied by music and lighting effects.
On Sunday, from 11:00, another costumed boat procession was announced. Every day there are performances by street artists. And of course, the main association with carnival is a lot of people in masks and beautiful outfits, which, according to my naive dream, were supposed to fill the whole city and turn the already beautiful Venice into a parallel world of a medieval fairy tale.
My friends and I got there pretty quickly, moved into the apartment, along the way we learned from the hostess where it is better to watch the carnival. She recommended crossing the Rialto Bridge and standing not far from it, but muttered under her breath that all the events at the carnival are for the rich, but they do nothing for ordinary people.
We rushed to the Rialto. There was a crowd at the bridge, in which, however, it was still possible to find a place. The bridge itself was not allowed by the police. Perhaps they were afraid that the Rialto would simply not stand: there were so many people that they miraculously did not fall into the canal. But the audience was polite, no one was jostling, there was an atmosphere of a general friendly holiday. We knew in advance that there would be a lot of people, but we were sure that the show was worth it.
The parade was supposed to start at 20:00. It starts near the Santa Lucia train station. We understood that the procession would reach the Rialto in twenty or thirty minutes. All this time, we had fun with prosecco for 4€ and watching tourists who tried to climb something higher. These attempts were stopped all the time by the police, but, again, kindly and politely.
Forty minutes later, police boats appeared — it became clear that the procession was approaching. iPhones shone in the air, and a couple of minutes later a huge shining stage with columns, singers, three dozen dancers in costumes, acrobats and a unicorn’s head appeared on the channel. The action was accompanied by an opera aria.
The floating theater impressed with its scale, however, it was not very visible. To the accompaniment of the opera, the first boat sailed past, we stretched out on tiptoe to better see the next ones.
“It’s over, go away,” the police suddenly said. We and the crowd didn’t understand: “What do you mean, that’s it?” “Yes, there won’t be anything else.” It turned out that we stood by the canal for 40 minutes for the sake of a three-minute spectacle of a single boat, albeit with such an elegant crew. Let me remind you, the action in the poster was called a parade, and the parade involves more than one participant.
It was so funny that it didn’t even hurt. We waited for another five minutes for formality, because we did not immediately believe in such an absurdity. But the procession sailed away and there was no continuation.
We staggered a little through the half-empty night streets and went to bed, because tomorrow we hoped to see a little more at the daytime procession of rowing boats.
The next day we came to about the same place, but from a different side. The Rialto Bridge was open, we stood and looked at the boats with the costumed participants — they were just sailing to the starting point. It seemed that we had taken the best places to observe.
A couple of minutes before the opening, the Rialto spectators were still chased away by the police. We moved a little lower to a place between two cafes. It was generally not bad to see, but part of the view was blocked by bored gondoliers who were standing on gondolas waiting for the parade to pass and it would be possible to earn money again.
As a result, the day’s march also lasted much less than his expectation. But it was richer and more fun than the epic appearance of the unicorn the day before. 40-50 boats with mummers sailed past us. Most of the applause was broken by a team of housewives in pink clothes, aprons, caps and berets with giant pantaloons and massive bras hanging on ropes right in the boat. At the end of the procession, a boat in the shape of a huge rat appeared, her stomach was ripped open, and colorful balloons flew out into the sky from there.
For two days we hardly saw any artists on the streets. A couple of times we came across street scenes, but there were either performances for children, or there was a break. There were very few people in carnival costumes and masks — it felt like 1-2% of the public were in ordinary clothes. As a friend who has been living in Venice for eight years said, tourists used to come to the carnival in costumes much more often, but now they are lazy.
Perhaps all the most interesting events take place at the end of the carnival — it lasts two or three weeks. But I hardly want to check it out. In the end, I understood why the owner of the apartment grumbled that carnival is for the rich, not for ordinary people: apparently, all the most impressive things happen at paid events, and not on the streets.
Although the opening of the carnival disappointed me, I was glad to see Venice again. There were not many people away from the popular streets, in the mornings and evenings I walked along half-empty alleys. And on Monday, most of the tourists left altogether.
I spent 162 € on accommodation in Venice and transport from Milan and back. I didn’t count the expenses for the cafe. I don’t regret the trip, but the mention of carnival only makes me grin.