castagnole and frappe- traditional Carnevale sweets
spaghetti alle vongole
Sipping on my Bellini
When I was teaching my middle school students last year about Carnevale in Venice, I was thinking how much I would love to experience it. This past weekend Katerina and I celebrated the final weekend of Carnevale in Venice. When we arrived Friday night, we had quite the runaround trying to find a different hotel. The hotel we were supposed to stay at was an absolute dive, and there was no way we could rough it there for two nights. Giannis worked his magic and was able to locate a different hotel nearby that had availability and was even half the price. He had the front desk hold the last available room for us until we arrived. Although the hotel was nearby, Katerina and I got lost trying to navigate through the innumerable bridges and calle (Venetian for vie). By the time we got to the new hotel, the entire event took three hours. Afterwards we relaxed over a nice dinner of seafood risotto and ended with the best dessert I’ve had yet: torta alla mandorla (almond cake). On Saturday we were on a mission for a pretty mask, which we found early in the day so that we could walk around Venice wearing them. It was such an experience to walk among those who were in elaborate costumes and dressed up from head to toe. The amount of people was insane and I definitely do not recommend spending the last weekend of Carnevale in Venice to anyone who has claustrophobia. For dinner that night I had the best spaghetti alle vongole I’ve ever tasted in my life and at night we went to Harry’s Bar. There were so many people out celebrating (including a fair share of obnoxious, loud American college students) and the music in St. Mark’s Square went up until about midnight.
Cultural Notes: 1. The Bellini cocktail (prosecco with peach purée) was invented in Venice by Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harry’s bar.
2. A Carnevale ogni scherzo vale: Anything goes during Carnevale. This saying capitalizes on how you can pull any prank or play any joke during Carnevale because you are unrecognizable behind a mask.
Highlights of My Weekend: 1. Finding out on Thursday night that I was admitted into Columbia University for the fall 2012 semester. It was a great kickoff to the weekend. I will be working towards a Masters in Applied Linguistics.
2. Getting to wear a mask all day. That was probably the only time when I could wear a mask from morning to night and order spaghetti alle vongole in a restaurant while being taken completely seriously.
3. People taking pictures of Katerina and I in our masks even though we weren’t in full costumes.
4. A gondoliere shouting out buon giorno principesse from a canal below as we crossed over the bridge. It was like a scene from a movie.
5. Although we weren’t expecting to get away cheap sipping on Bellinis at the infamous Harry’s bar, it was a bit of a shock when we received the bill of €77 for four drinks. It’s a highlight not because we enjoyed dropping €40 a piece, but because we got a good laugh out of it when we received the bill.
Impara con me! 1. riga- part (in hair)
2. colpi di sole- highlights (for hair)
