Venice Carnival

What actually happens

Volo dell'Angelo — the opening descent from the bell tower into St Mark's Square. Festa delle Marie — a procession commemorating the rescued brides of 943.

• 01Volo dell'Angelo — the opening descent from the bell tower into St Mark's Square.
• 02Festa delle Marie — a procession commemorating the rescued brides of 943.
• 03Svolo del Leon — the lion of St Mark, shown on the screen at the end.
• 04Il Carnevale in corte — masked balls in the palazzi along the Grand Canal.

Sound of the crowd

Vivaldi's concertos are the house soundtrack, and not only for the tourism. Baroque ensembles play in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and in the churches, which is the rare case of a festival's music being genuinely of its period.

How it survived

Documented from 1094 and at its most anarchic in the eighteenth century, when the city was a destination for masked gambling and duelling. Napoleon abolished it in 1797 and it stayed abolished until 1979, when the city relaunched it as a cultural economy.