Here's a little background on Carnival for those of you who don't know. It is basically the splurging of food, wine, and general celebration and jubilation the two weeks before Lent begins. The last day of Carnival is usually called Fat Tuesday or Marti Grais [not unlike the partying that occurs in New Orleans]. Every part of Italy celebrates it a little different, but Venice was not only one of the first places to celebrate Carnival [first recorded in 1268], they definitely party the hardest. The tradition of wearing masks started up just as long ago and is similar to Halloween in the States, in the sense that you get to conceal your true identity and be someone [or something] different for a while.
So I think I'm going to Quentin Tarantino this shit. Mix it up a little. I'm going to tell you some things that I've learned from my experience of Venice...then I'll tell you the story behind what I've learned. Enjoy...
+ALWAYS have a place to stay before traveling to an unknown place
+Hungover Sprinting is not fun for anyone
+The dining car of a train is your best friend if you don't have a seat booked
+Fragolino = Sparkling Strawberry Wine = SO GOOD! = Inebriation
+When in Venice [...not Rome] ...buy a 24 hour water taxi pass. [only 18 Euros]
+Italians don't party as late or as hard as Americans [not even for Carnival]
+Abandon buildings and drained pools are sometimes just as entertaining as site seeing/tourist things
+Venice is sinking
Ok...now that you're thoroughly confused, lets talk. Like I said Friday we woke up and randomly decided to check out this huge party in Venice that everyone was talking about. We went to the train station to buy some tickets and find out that ALL the seats on ALL of the trains to and from Venice are booked for the next week [obviously this Carnival thing is a big deal...right?]. The man behind the Biglietta [ticket] counter tells us that he can still sell us tickets though. All this means that we were guaranteed a ride to Venice on a train...not a seat at all. On most trains this wouldn't be a big deal because it's rare that a train is completely packed and you can just pick any open seat. But this doesn't work with train packed full of Carnival-hungry partyers extremely excited for a weekend in Venice. In our heads at the time, we were so excited that we actually believed that we wouldn't mind STANDING on a train for two and a half hours if it meant a fun weekend of Carnival!
So after our spontaneous purchase of a ride with out sitting, we found a cheap hostel outside of the city [because, of course, everything close is full for Carnival]. Try to imagine our giddiness. Moments before this we were just waking up with nothing to do and now we had definite plans to experience one of the biggest parties on the planet! So in celebration of our spontaneity and success in finding a way to/place to stay in Venice, we went out and bought some birra and drank them in the park outside of our place till it got dark...
I wake up to my roommate saying the words, "...ten minutes till the train leaves!" [See "Hungover Sprinting" above].
Good news...we made the train.
Bad news...the moment we get on the train we remembered that we purchased tickets to ride, NOT SIT, on the train. So here we are wondering why we thought drinking the night before was a good idea and just wishing we had a place to sit, put our heads down, and pass out for the two and half hour ride to Venice. "SHIT!" That's about all I could say at that point. Eventually, through squeezing our way through the packed train cars we discovered the dining car! Thank you God for the dining car! We found an open booth, put our heads down on the table, and slept the whole way to Venice.
Wake up in Venice...or what some would see as another world. Streets of water, boats instead of cars, everyone in masks, horns and whistles blaring, confetti falling like rain, and people already drinking alcohol at 11am!!! I was taken back to my previous comment about Amsterdam...the island in Pinocchio...a non-stop party.
We waste no time in joining in on the celebrations. With in a few hours I was fed, had a drink in hand, and a mask on my face. We went to San Marco's Square, which could have been compared to Time Square on New Year's Eve, just with ancient Gothic and Renaissance churches and colonnades surrounding it instead of skyscrapers and giant LCD screens. People were packed shoulder to shoulder, barely able to move, and everyone dressed up. There were couples that had gone all out, dressed totally in traditional 1400's Venetian outfits. Men in tights and three cornered hats and women in corsets and huge gowns. There were little kids dressed like mice and dinosaurs and pirates. They sprayed silly string and covered everything and everyone in confetti. This was Carnival!
We discovered a Venetian favorite, Fragolino, which is sparkling strawberry wine that is usually made in Venice. We bought three bottles and hopped on a water taxi [a small ferry boat that circulates all around Venice]. For those of you who plan to visit Venice some time in your life, I suggest purchasing a 24 hour water taxi pass when you get there. I know alot of people want to do the whole touristy, romantic gondola thing for a ridiculous price. But after you get that out of your system...the water taxi is a great way to get places, but also just sit and see the city. We sat there in the front of the boat drinking Fragolino for a long time.
Watch this video to try to understand how much fun we were having at the time...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU
Yea...that much fun...plus some. And it was probably a bad decision resulting from a combination of Fragolino, general excitement, and adrenalin, but we decided to cancel or reservation of our hostel for the night. We didn't want to have to stop having this much fun to catch the last water taxi to the main land. Instead we would just party all night [or at least that's what we told ourselves]. We can sleep when we're dead, we said.
So the sight seeing, boat riding, mask wearing, confetti throwing, dancing and drinking continued on, well into the night, till we found us sitting on the edge of a canal passing a bottle of Fragolino back and forth between us discussing everything from women to US verse Italian politics to how blessed we are to even be where we were/are for a long while. It was at this point that we looked around us an realized that we were alone and we were not entirely sure where, with in, Venice we were. The lights of windows were out. There were no more masked people in the streets. There was no more music playing and the confetti was not falling from the sky, insteady it just laid like multi colored snow on the sidewalks and floated in the canal water. We were so alone that we were able to pee in the already filthy canals in the middle of what would normally be a busy and bustling street. Venice had gone to sleep with out us. We were still ready to celebrate and the Italians had all called it a night. Eventually we did find some other people still awake and drunk...all Americans...Im not sure what that says about us...but I know we can party.
But despite our nationality and our ability to party, exhaustion crept up on us like it does everyone and come 4am all we wanted was a safe, warm bed. So we wound our ways through the narrow streets, eyes half shut and drunk, knocking on hotel doors asking for "Vacanza?" [vacancy]. Each night manager gave us the same shake of the head and we moved on. It wasn't until the Best Western near San Marco Square that we found A open room. But the night manager, Adriano, looked at the three of us and said in broken English, "How about you look at this room first before you decide to pay?" [Obvisouly not a good sign]. We found the room to be about the size of a small walk-in closet. There was a small bed and about the same amount of room the bed took up of empty floor space. Three grown boys had to fit in here...but what other choice did we have. And as bad as Adriano felt about this he knew we had no other choice. He told us he was breaking the rules and also giving us a good price. He said only 120 Euros...I tried to drunkly haggle with him...100 Euro?...Adriano considered, and said 'OK'...so drunkly I went again...80 Euro...Adriano smirked and said 'NO'...and we just laughed and said 'Fine...we'll talk it'. And there we slept, me on the bed [because I gave up my credit card] and Frank and George shoulder to shoulder on the floor.
The next day we decided to lay off the strawberry wine and adventure around the city sober. We took the the water taxi over to a large white church on its own island and walked around there for a while. We discovered a complex of buildings, which seem to be build in the 50's or 60's [alot younger than most buildings in Venice/all of Italy] but were totally abandoned. We couldn't figure it out. Apartments, boat storage, soccer fields, basketball courts, kitchens...all copletely empty. Doors left wide open, windows broken and garbage on the floors. We came upon a large Natatorium with a pool that was completely drained. It was surreal. I climbed up on the high dive that had probably not been used in atleast 30 years. It was a little creepy, but also fun and interesting at the same time. It was wierd to think about how we were having fun in a building that could have existed in the US...but we were in Venice...a city atleast five times older than the country of the United States...and we were totally alone.
The reason I feel my Venice and Carnival experience was better than most is because we did it comletely differently than anyone else and with out expecting anything. It was a random and not extremely thought out decision [which, in my opinion, are some of the best]. We did not restrict ourselves with reservations [eat your heart out Anthony Bourdain]. And because we knew we would spend time and money on the touristy things the next time we came to Venice with the school, we focussed on the cultural experiences and seeing things that people wouldn't even think about. We ate local food, drank local drink, partied with the locals [and about 200,000 other visitors], and we really explored. And that was that.
Footnotes
+Sorry it took me so long for this post. I'm really behind. Rome and Pompei/Capri are coming very soon!
+Yes...that is a cross shaved in the back of my head. And yes, Mom, I already grew it out. So don't freak.
+Birra of the Blog will return next post. I only drank wine in Venice. Ciao!
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