We arrived in Venice for the Carnival of Venice on the Thursday evening and walked to our hotel, the city is small enough to walk end to end in a few hours, if you know the way, and this was a good chance to get acquainted with the tiny alley ways and streets we would be navigating over the next few days, possibly drunk and in the dark?

On the Friday we walked around taking in the amazing sights of the only pedestrianized city in the world, photographing everything as it was all beautiful . We wouldnt be carrying our cameras in the parade the following day in case the were lost, stolen or broken.
Mara and I purchased a mask each, after closely inspecting anf trying on hundreds, if not thousands (ok slight embellishment there).

On the Saturday, we dressed up in our outfits and headed out into the streets for the parade. The outfits people had on were excellent, with a lot of time, care and money spent constructing them. The usual garb is 19th century period dress, with tricorn hats, tailcoats, breeches, wigs, frilly shirts, tights etc. and of course the ubiquitous Venetian mask.

Venice has amazing architecture and lovely small boutique shops, but was hideously expensive to buy anything there. The small coffee shops and delicatessens were exquisite and great alleyway restaurants.

The main St Mark's square featured the usual tourist throng, numbers buoyed despite the cold weather by the festival crowds and the basillica was astoundingly details and ornate with architectural details from many styles: Gothic, romance, baroque, venetian, Roman/ Greek legacy and other European styles.

On the Sunday, we went for a nice walk into some of the less explored areas, which were basically empty of all people as most tourists stay in the centre and all the locals were out for the day attending to the tourists . The backstreets, canals and alleys were lovely but a bit chilly at this time of year.

We purchased some of the glass that Venice is famous for in the form of some small figurines, and some souvenirs for family and friends and then had a nice evening meal as we were leaving early Monday morning.