VENICE CARNIVAL

The Grand Theatre at Piazza San Marco hosts major program events of Venice Carnival: from the Angel's Flight to the big carnival parades, the Festa delle Marie shows on Mardi Gras. You can watch the shows from the ground floor, for a full interaction with actors, masks and characters, or from the exclusive heated side boxes.Every day, at the time of lunch (13:00 to 15:00) and dinner (19:00), the side boxes of the Grand Theatre are transformed in the most exclusive...

In 1094 Doge Vitale Falier was in power in Venice. In this year the first edition of the Carnival of Venice began unconsciously, as a public celebration to honor the days preceding Lent. Everything is reported in an official document so that the tradition could be followed. But it took long time before the Venice Carnival became a proper festival, ending the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.Once the Carnival began the first Sunday of...

The gondola is icon of Venice more than any other symbol. Originally, each was painted a different color, but on October 8, 1630 the city Senate decreed that all should be painted black, and so it has remained until today.Building a gondola is a complex operation, the boat shape needs to be asymmetrical (the left stern, where the gondolier stands, is 16 cm longer) for the boat to proceed straight. The hull bottom is made of 280 pieces from eight different types...

When there was still no streetlights that illuminate Venice today, scattered everywhere, the city plunged into darkness after sunset. Only a few votive candles lighted sacred images along the walls, the "cesendeli".By the middle of the fifteenth century the number of assaults had soared so much that a law was passed which made it mandatory to use a light to those who go around past three in the morning.People then geared up with candles and candlesticks,...

The squeri are the workshops where carpenters, artisans, shipwrights build and repair small boats, especially gondolas. The name originated from the Venetian "squara", the instrument used to square wood.Among the still existing boatyards, the oldest (dates back to the seventeenth century) and most famous is one of San Trovaso in the Dorsoduro district. It has preserved the original structure with slides projected into the water.