Carnival of Venice

The Venetian in Macau reminded Rika and I of our trip to the Carnival of Venice in Mar 2000.   Here are some of our holiday snaps from that trip

St Mark's Square and Basilica.

Outside the Doge's Palace

Piazzetta dei Leoncini looking across to San Giorgio Maggiore

Gondola around Rio de S Salvador?

Rialto Bridge from Grand Canal

Why all these snaps of the scary guy in the plague-doctor mask and Tricorne hat?  Well, as you've probably guessed, that is Hannah Papa in carnival costume.   We made a very sound decision to join the Carnival as participants.  I hired some ornate costumes in London and we bought masks in Venice.

Rika having lunch at a cafe on the Grand Canal.

We stayed in a famous old hotel and booked tickets for carnival events, including a masked ball at the Tiepolo Palace on the Grand Canal.

Rika on the Rialto Bridge

It was a strange but exhilarating experience being in Venice in costume.  Only a few % of the crowd were in costume - although that was still many hundreds - so we were photographed wherever we went.   On the other hand nobody could see our faces, which was liberating.   And of course as participants in an ancient tradition we 'belonged' in Venice a rather more than the tourists taking photos.

   

Rika in St Marks square after a ball.

One of my fondest memories is dancing waltzes with Rika in St Marks square to a live Venetian orchestra.  Also hanging-out afterwards in Caffe Florian.

Hannah papa in a different mask.

It was a bit of a creapy feeling but I found my bering instinctively adopted  the persona of the mask and costume.   Upright and slightly menacing in the plague doctor mask or effete and frivolous in the clown mask.  

The Venetian

In Macau we stayed at The Venetian resort and casino on the Cotai strip.    Granddad got us a special deal through his political connections with the owner and the John Birch society.

Granny and Granddad outside the Dodge's palace.

The Venetaian is a massive and surprisingly authentic recreation of Venice, Italy, with a few thoughtful improvements, most notably building it above sea-level.    And also dispensing with the cathedral and churches, and putting clean water in the canals, and putting the streets and canals inside  the 6th biggest building in the world, in a giant shopping mall.

Above:  the Rialto bridge over the main entrance rather than the Grand Canal

View from our hotel room over the Campamile towards the other casinos of the Cotai strip.  You can see the mini-gold course on the roof of the mall.   In the evening we went to the City of Dreams  casino to see the House of Dancing Water.  We had front-row seats for one of the most impressive and silliest shows I've ever seen.

The interior of the vast shopping mall with one of the 6 or so canals.

Canal with Gondola in the mall.   The buildings are amazingly accurate reproductions but you always know its not the real thing because the water in the canals is blue and doesn't smell of drains.

Gondolas, gondolas, gondolas....   The gondliers even sing in italian...

The roof of one of the atriums

 Granny and Grandad with Hannah

St Marks square in twilight.   But no St Marks cathedral.  

Hannah enjoying the kids club.  She chose this instead of the gondola ride.