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| The Beans in Venice |
The Beans are in Venice enjoying the city and its people. Before going to the reception offered by the City Hall, the family has continued its English classes. Today, they have been talking about some conditional structures: Zero and First Conditional.
It's a special visit for Ana Bean, who is in love with the city and for The Grandma who has great memories of her past with Corto Maltese in this wonderful place. Venice is being a great experience for all the members of the family: Tania and Paqui Bean has fallen in love with a gondolier, a Venetian boatman.
More information: Zero Conditional & First Conditional
Moreover, The Grandma has been talking about sustanaible houses and buildings that avoid pollution and energy consumption, something very important for cities that are under danger of collapsing like Venice.
More information: Passive House International
The Carnevale di Venezia is one of the most famous carnivals around the world, and a charming characteristic of the city. Its origins are centuries old, and it still attracts thousands of tourists each year who arrive in Venice to admire the sumptuous costumes and masks parading in the streets and squares. Creating masks is, indeed, an art in Venice, a tradition dating back hundreds of years, making the carnival of Venice truly unique.
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| Paqui and Tania Bean with a handsome gondolier |
The carnival became a public festivity in 1296, with an act of the Senate of the Republic of Venice, but its origins are even older. Already in 1094, official documents brought traces of public celebrations in the last days before Lent.
At this time, and for the following centuries, the carnival consisted in several weeks of festivity and fun in the whole city, during which people could indulge in music, dances and parties, barely working. Wearing masks and costumes made it possible for people to hide any differences of class or status, and it was even allowed to make fun of the aristocracy. This time of regulated social outburst was a way for the Most Serene Republic of Venice to maintain order and power throughout the rest of the year.
More information: Simply Masquerade
Public shows and exhibitions were organized everywhere in the city, with musicians, dancers, acrobats and jugglers. At the same time, parties and raffish performances also took place in private houses and cafés, and theaters hosted a growing number of masked plays.
The carnival became internationally famous and prestigious in the 18th century, when it reached its widest fame. It was in this period that the writer Casanova spent his life in Venice between wild parties and love affairs. At the end of the century, with the French conquest of the Republic first and the Austrian occupation later, the tradition of wearing masks was forbidden, and the carnival survived, even though reduced, only in some island of the lagoon. It was only in 1979 that the ancient tradition was restored, in the form still seen today.
More information: Venezia Autentica
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| Who are The Beans hidden behind the masks? |
The magic of carnival gives to Venice an enchanted atmosphere. Masked people fill the streets with smiles and laughter, and several events are organized all around the city. The carnival usually lasts a couple of weeks, but the most important days are those between the last Thursday and the very last day, Tuesday. These are called giovedì grasso and martedì grasso, literally ‘fat Thursday’ and ‘fat Tuesday,’ in opposition to the following Ash Wednesday that marks the beginning of Lent, a period traditionally dedicated to fast. However, the weekends are usually the privileged time for tourists and visitors.
On the last Sunday and last Tuesday of carnival, a big wooden stage hosts the award ceremony of the best masked costume, which is elected after several parades that take place during the central days of the festival. This stage is also the theater of different plays, where traditional masked characters like Arlecchino interpret comic adventures. It is also possible to participate to sumptuous masked parties in 18th century style, organized in ancient Venetian buildings, but the dimension of the squares and streets is the most popular one.
More information: The Telegraph
To build a city where it is impossible to build a city
is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant
and grandest of cities is the madness of genius.
Alexander Herzen
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