Unmasking Carnevale

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go."-Truman Capote
So much so, that you need a full day to recover from it! Especially during Carnevale!
Friday morning a few friends from the program and I caught the mid-day train from Bologna to Venezia with nothing but the necessities that would fit into one backpack and our pockets, to experience our first and possibly only Carnevale in Venice. We expected the streets to be crawling with extravagant and intricate masks, and 18th century gowns, as well as a suffocating amount of tourists...and we were pleased to only find the former! Leaving the train station, we were shocked to see absolutely no one wearing masks, just a bit of face paint here and there...that is until we arrived in Piazza San Marco.

We wandered through the narrow and twisting streets, followed confusing canal ways and surprisingly didn't get lost, ate extremely overpriced food, took pictures, and all together admired one of the most spectacular cities in Italy.

Sadly, things tend to close around 2 AM and we didn't book a hostel...so we ended up waiting outside of the train station, almost freezing, until the first train going to Bologna at 5:57 AM.
i.e.: We needed an entire day to recover.
But it was extremely worth it and truly an once-in-a-lifetime experience!