Venice's annual weeklong carnevale offers camera-packing tourists unlimited temptation to snap rolls of photos of the almost ubiquitous masques and costumes. During the carnevale, masked revelers come to the Piazza San Marco to parade in ones and twos, strolling among pigeons and tourists. Tourists flock to take pictures of the three or four most impressive groups of masks, forming a tight scrum of gawkers and amateur photographers. Those with head-to-toe garb move about at a snail's pace, careful not to disturb or shed parts of a billowing, cumbersome, and expensive costume. Slow, mime-like movement is also essential to acting the part of the carnevale prima donna.

Everyone present is a participant, certainly including the foreign tourists crowding in to take pictures or pose for the camera. Those wearing the masks take snapshots of the competition with as much zeal as the most underdressed. Pigeons serve as prop and backdrop. Though most non-masked tourists probably regret not having elaborate costume of their own, parading before the cameras may be less exciting than jockeying through the dense crowds for just the right shot of the most popular masks.

Dressing for carnevale is a sport for all ages. Though the slender, young and attractive will always find a way to display their gifts, the old, the fat and the ugly seem to do quite well at carnevale. One tall, angular beauty who now-and-then furtively revealed a great deal of tanned, toned legs through her tight-fitting blue costume drew no more than half the fans of the fragile white-robed ghosts whose lavish hats, masks, and streamers concealed everything about them, including age, gender, and weight.

Though the most elaborate costumes make the best photos, I actually think it would be more fun to be one of those dressed in period costume. In the heyday of Venice, when masks were worn at the government-endorsed gambling house known as the Ridotto, their purpose was practical: to conceal the identity of the players without inconveniencing them too much to prevent play, or intrigue for that matter. Imagine winning a big stake at baccarat while wearing a ridiculous two-foot head-piece.

It's a delight to watch the most heavily-souped-up groups of partiers attempting to go about their basic daily business of being fed, going from hotel or bus stop to the Piazza via vaporetto, or lounging in gondolas and cafes. In the photo at the bottom left I caught two elaborate Piazza-goers attempting to order a cappucino. The task of accessing and using Venice's public restrooms must be a real project for some of these people.

Click on any of the images to see the full version. For my friends who know I rarely take a camera when I travel, I have the prints at home to prove these are my own and not stolen from other web pages.

Many thanks to those spirited and anonymous individuals shown in these images.

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