His and Her Stories: Venice Carnival

Did you know going to a masquerade was on my bucket list? Well now you do.

Did you also know that this weekend I got to cross that off my bucket list? No? Let me tell you about it...

A friendly family out here invited our family to join them this past weekend as they attended Carnival in Venice, Italy. The price of the trip was phenomenal and it included a masquerade ball! So of course we said yes, and we began planning.

On Friday afternoon we flew over the gorgeous Swiss Alps, still snow capped, and rising jaggedly above the clouds. When we touched down in Italy, we took a quick bus to Venice and then hopped onto the vaporetto (Venice's water boat/bus) to get to our hotel. It took some meandering but we finally made it to our hotel along the Grand Canal.

Saturday brought heavy rain clouds that dumped all day long, but they also included a silver lining. The family we were with, having attended Carnival before, told us that wearing our costumes all day Saturday was the norm. So we woke up that morning and donned our best 18th century Venetian attire complete with masks.

Out into the rain we went.

The downpour had discouraged many from wearing their elaborate costumes and when we got to Saint Mark's Square people were huddled around the fringe of the square taking shelter under the roofing of various stores and cafes. Suddenly, we walked into the group and became instant stars! We were the only ones brave enough to go full costume, which is what everyone came to see at Carnival, so we ended up standing and posing with tourists for hours on end as they oggled our costumes! All morning long, this was our view:

Becoming an instant celebrity made up for the rain that continued all day and soaked right through our shoes. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to dry out so we'd be ready to dance away the evening at the masquerade.

The masquerade had classic Venetian dishes (read: fish) that were quite nice. There was some entertainment, and then the dancing began around 10:30PM. Half the fun was just soaking up the ambiance, the other half was admiring the costumes of those who really went all out.

This is my mom- she got a super cool mask.

This group of 8 had matching costumes, but mostly I loved their wigs.

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. We crashed and woke up to a bright blue sky outside. Hooray! Ray and I split from our larger group on Sunday and did some exploring on our own. Our first stop was the Ponte dell'Accademia, the bridge right next to our hotel. We'd noticed love locks along the bridge and wanted to add our own. We locked our love up tight, sealed it with a kiss, and dropped the key into the Grand Canal below. Romantic, I know.


Here's our love lock- forever in Venice.

After that, we meandered a few streets down to the Ca'Rezzinico, which an 18th century home turned museum. We were the only ones there so we had the entire mansion to ourselves to admire the endless frescoes and framed artwork. Plus they had some stellar views from the top floor.

We hopped back on the vaporetto after that and since we had a two day pass, we were able to quickly jump off to get a better look at this building:

St. Mary's church. We arrived just in time to make a quick walk through and hear the organ start playing before it was closed to the public for the day.

Back on the water bus one more time to get to St. Mark's Square so we could see more costumes, and go into St. Mark's Basilica. It was gorgeous- the last time I was in Venice I didn't get to go inside, and I'm so glad we went this time. The mosaics were intricate and beautiful, and we got to experience that reverent awe that comes when entering old landmarks such as this one.

The view of the square from the balcony of the Basilica- teeming with Carnival-goers!

At this point, it was time to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and meet up with the group for an early dinner before departing the floating city. Our two final purchases were gelatto, and a mask ornament for our collection (Ray and I both collected Christmas ornaments before we met, and now we get one from each place we visit). We picked up this ornament as we were rushing to the bus, we didn't allot time very well. We ran past a stall, picked up the first ornament we saw and thrust the two euro at the woman standing there. She tried to call out to us and give us change that we'd mistakenly thrown in, but we were already booking it down the walkway and called back to her to just keep it.

Venice got Ray's seal of approval and we hope to go back soon to do more sight seeing and eat more gelatto. Here's some more of our favorite pictures from the trip.