18th century … on mescaline

So, yeah, no surprises for my friends back home, my favourite part of the Venice Carnevale was the costumes. They … were … a w e s o m e !

Rich Venetians buy incredibly expensive and magnificient costumes to wear throughout the carnevale. Especially on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, the crowd was full of bizarre figures, simply strolling and showing off; they were stopped every few minutes by tourists desperate for a photo.

The main event of the Carnevale is a huge costume competition, which draws competitors from around the world. I’d seen several of the competitors strolling the Piazza over the previous few days: it was thrilling to see that one of my favourite costumes won the top prize.

I took so many bloody photos, that I’ve just got to do a gallery page here. I’ll have to say something about my favourites.

Gorgeous little girl throwing round confetti.

I caught a photo with the gorgeous Lion guy.

This is definitely one of my favourite costumes: the guy inside it was very slight and feline, and had the lion movements and snarls down pat. However, he was hounded a lot for photos, and got quite grumpy, turning down people by the third day. Mia (fellow hosteller) and I were lucky enough to catch a photo with him.

Many costumes were inspired by lions, as San Marco’s symbol is the lion.

Here is on stage during the costume competition:

The San Marco Lion guy, strutting his feline stuff.

The other costumes I really took notice of, walking around the piazza, was a group of Germans (as I later found out), who’d worked on a theme of Marco Polo (a famous Venetian) and the Oriental. They were structurally ingenious and gorgeous. To my delight, the group won the top prize.

Marco Polo group: awesome!

One of the Marco Polo group. Her headress was incredible.

There was also Balloon Man – yes, he walked around in a hot air balloon. He won an award also.

One of the winners - Balloon Man.

Balloon man was kind enough to pose with Astro Boy.

Another of my favourites was one of the finalists: the Theatre of Venice lady. Her dress represents the sadly destroyed (and rebuilt) Venice Opera House.

Theatre Lady was kind enough to pose with Astro Boy.

Okay, here’s the best of the several hundred photos I took: I was in heaven with all this marvellous craziness. Have a good look, tell me your favourites.