After a long absence, the Carnival returned in 1979.
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The Government decided to bring back the history and culture of Venice. It sought to use the traditional Carnival as the centerpiece of its efforts.
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The redevelopment of the masks began as the pursuit of some Venetian college students for the tourist trade. Since then, approximately 3 million visitors come to Venice every year for the Carnival.
One of the most important events is the contest for la maschera più bella ("the most beautiful mask") which is judged by a panel of international costume and fashion designers.

February 25, 2020
Tara Isabella Burton

In Venice, where I am attending the festival known as Carnevale, the streets swarm with would-be revelers, and it is impossible to see out of the windows at Café Florian on Piazza San Marco for all of the Instagram photographers who stand outside them, taking pictures of costumed masqueraders, rapping on the glass to get their attention or to get that perfect shot.

It's easy to forget, amid all the chaos, that this holiday is of course a religious one: the two or so weeks before Fat Tuesday (or Mardi Gras, as it is often known). And then Ash Wednesday: the beginning of the penitential season of Lent. Carnevale is a period of excess before fasting, of chaos before quietude.

The old bonds fostered by a church or synagogue or mosque — the official rites of passage as well as the more social sides of our communities of faith — are increasingly weakening. But in an age of spiritual uncertainty, more and more of us are finding our spiritual "tribes" within these existing religious traditions, be they pagan nature worship or medieval Catholicism.

For me, it was Carnevale. A few years before I returned to conscious Christianity, I started attending the Carnevale here on the recommendation of a close friend I knew through the international vintage clothing scene. About 200 or so people, mostly Italian and French with a smattering of Germans and Americans, came annually not to attend the publicly sanctioned parties of Carnevale, which can run easily up to 1,000 euros per ticket, but to attend smaller private parties at people's homes or expressly rented palazzos.

These parties are not commercial propositions — the entry fee generally just about covers the cost of catering staff and copious amounts of prosecco — but, rather, gatherings of like-minded friends: people whose love of history, of beauty, of historical costuming or poetic nostalgia or dressing up or theatricality brings them back, every year, into the group that has become known as "the family."

The Vaporetto is the only real public transport in Venice. It is a passenger ship, which is similar to a bus used in other places. There are about 20 water-bus-lines in Venice. The ferries are used within the island of Venice. But they also connect the main island with other islands and Venice with the mainland.
Some Vaporetto lines go in both directions, other lines run in a kind of roundabout. As a tourist you should be careful not to go in the wrong direction. At larger stops there are several piers side by side.

The ferries operate where are no roads, but wide channels. In summer you often have to wait long to get on a crowded ship. In winter you often get a seat by the window. The ships are heated in winter, as a rule there is no toilet on the vaporetto. You can also sit outside. In smaller ships you will find about 50 seats. The size of the water buses in Venice is therefore comparable to a regular bus, but there is more standing room. On some lines you can also find larger ferries, some of them are also big car ferries. These also have a toilet.

High waves are rare in the well-protected lagoon of Venice, but other ships sometimes produce waves. Especially when standing you should watch out.

There are hardly any ferries to Mestre on the mainland because there is a bridge for buses, cars and trains. Vaporetto means translated steamer. The plural is vaporetti and not, as many tourists believe, vaporettos.
The Vaporetti run until late in the evening. There are even three night lines.

Venice Carnival
The Venice Carnival became extremely popular during the eighteenth century, when aristocrats from all over the world would attend the annual festival. The royal families and nobility of other neighbouring countries would also come and dress up with elaborate masks and costumes.

For centuries, it was one of the only ways the citizens could escape from the control of the Venetian government. When Napoleon invaded Venice, the Carnival was banned for fear of the citizens conspiring against the French troops. The festival was not to come back officially until the Italian government decided to promote the Venetian culture and history in 1979.

The banks of the Grand Canal are lined with more than 170 buildings, most of which date from the 13th to the 18th century, and demonstrate the welfare and art created by the Republic of Venice. The noble Venetian families faced huge expenses to show off their richness in suitable palazzos; this contest reveals the citizens' pride and the deep bond with the lagoon.
Amongst the many are the Palazzi Barbaro, Ca' Rezzonico, Ca' d'Oro, Palazzo Dario, Ca' Foscari, Palazzo Barbarigo and to Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, housing the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The churches along the canal include the basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. Centuries-old traditions, such as the Historical Regatta, are perpetuated every year along the Canal.

Because most of the city's traffic goes along the Canal rather than across it, only one bridge crossed the canal until the 19th century, the Rialto Bridge. There are currently three more bridges, the Ponte degli Scalzi, the Ponte dell'Accademia, and the controversial Ponte della Costituzione from 2008, designed by Santiago Calatrava, connecting the train station to Piazzale Roma, one of the few places in Venice where buses and cars can enter. As was usual in the past, people can still take a ferry ride across the canal at several points by standing up on the deck of a simple gondola called a traghetto, although this service is less common than even a decade ago.

Most of the palaces emerge from water without pavement. Consequently, one can only tour past the fronts of the buildings on the grand canal by boat.

After a long absence, the Carnival returned in 1979.
The Government decided to bring back the history and culture of Venice, and sought to use the traditional Carnival as the centerpiece of its efforts.
The redevelopment of the masks began as the pursuit of some Venetian college students for the tourist trade. Since then, approximately 3 million visitors come to Venice every year for the Carnival.

The Moretta was a small mask covered with black velvet (hence the name 'Moretta' because, in Venetian dialect, 'moro' means dark, black) of French origin and reserved exclusively for women. Initially it was used by the ladies when they went to visit nuns in respectful silence: the Moretta, in fact, did not allow the wearer to speak because it was held close to the face without the use of laces, but by biting a button on the inside, positioned at the level of the mouth ... From this surprising detail comes the second name of this unique female accessory: the Muta.

La Moretta or Muta became very common among Venetian women especially between the 17th and 18th centuries because hiding the face was considered a way to make themselves more attractive and mysterious. At the same time, however, the ladies were rather uninhibited in showing their bodies: the time's fashion in fact featured a very generous but veiled 'Venetian' décolleté, which clearly revealed the shape of the breast. The face was therefore the true treasure of a woman and regarded as a mirror of her inner world, her feelings and intentions.

This frivolous but practical mask was considered one of the fundamental tools in the complicated game of seduction played across Venice: the suitor had to be so skilled to convince the beloved woman to remove the mask! Obviously, it was the lady herself who held the power, deciding how long to remain anonymous and silent before responding to the suitor's advances. Women were aware that by hiding behind the mask, in addition to becoming mischievously seductive, they also became incredibly desirable ... When the lady finally decided to remove the Moretta, in addition to the sight of her face, she also offered the sound of her voice, equally considered an expression of her personality.