Carnevale

In Italy, there is a celebration here known as Carnevale which is the last celebration before the Roman Catholic liturgical season of Lent. The beginning of Lent starts with Ash Wednesday where many Catholics give up something they enjoy. Carnevale then is a period of time where people celebrate with costumes, masks, and food before Lent. The celebration of Carnevale ends on Martedi Grasso (in Italian) or what many people in the U.S. refer to as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. Carnevale is celebrated all over the world and the world famous Carnevale in Italy is in Venice. I knew Venice was going to be crowded with tourists and I heard of another town that does something for Carnevale. ViaReggio is a little beach town that holds a celebration for Carnevale every year that is more for the local Italian people. By train ViaReggio is only two hours from Siena and 15 minutes from Pisa so we went to Pisa first and took all of the touristy photos with the impressive leaning tower and then headed to our main destination.

ViaReggio is very similar to the small beach towns in California and was a comfort to my friends and I as we visit California often so it was a great reminder of home. The first thing on our list was to visit the beach and then later that night we dressed up put on our masks and went to dinner. While at dinner we saw a group of people our age dressed up in costume. We asked the waitress where they were going and she said there was a block party not too far away. We decided to go and check it out and it was not a disappointment. Different DJs on every street, drink stands, food trucks and people dressed up in costume dancing. We danced the night away with a mix of American music and Italian music.

On Sunday, ViaReggio has a massive parade that is very famous around Italy. On Martedi Grasso it even gets broadcasted on TV all across the country. The floats are made out of paper machete and get worked on for the entire year prior to Carnevale. The large floats carry up to 200 people dressed up in costume, singing, dancing, and throwing confetti. This extends to the people on the street as well as mostly everyone was dressed up in costume, singing along to the songs, dancing on the side, and throwing confetti on the performers. Some of the performers pulled me and Beka into the parade and we danced with them for a little bit. It was a fun party atmosphere and I had a blast. It was the best weekend I have had in Italy so far. If you have never heard of the Carnevale in ViaReggio look it up immediately. You won’t be dissapointed. If you have the opportunity to be in Italy around January/February sometime in your life go to ViaReggio to experience it. You will not regret it. I know I didn’t.