Festa delle Marie: 2 February
Tomorrow, 3 February, will see the Festa delle Marie take place as part of the Venetian carnival. But what are its true origins? Find out here.
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Venice
History of Venetian Carnival: 31 January
The second in a series of posts exploring the history of the Venetian Carnival and the events which would have taken place during the time of the Venetian Republic (697-1797).
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Carnival in Venice
Tomorrow, 27 January 2018, is the official start of what is probably the most famous carnival in the world, the Carnevale di Venezia. Soon the calli and campi will be full of people, mostly tourists and mostly French, sporting costumes ranging from the outlandish to the opulent, and posing for photographs evocative of the final century of
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Great Venetians: Pietro Bembo
When the Italian people got together to choose which of the many varieties of the language to adopt as the common and literary language, it boiled down to two: Tuscan and Venetian.
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Venetian word of the day: fritoa
The arrival of carnival in Venice is announced by the appearance of fritoe in the shops. These are sweet fritters, covered with sugar, a bit like a donut, which are traditionally eaten throughout the carnival season.
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Venetian numbers
Yesterday, I heard what could be considered a textbook lesson in counting as a conversation between two gondoliers contained all the numbers up to ten as they discussed their work schedule for the coming ten days.