Carnival Masks and Floats at Viareggio

Italians exploit every opportunity to celebrate as a community and right now it’s Carnival, time to have fun before the penitential period of Lent. The Carnival at Viareggio is strong competition for the one at Venice, and it’s so little known outside Italy that you rarely hear a foreign language being spoken.

The performers

The audience

Everything is focused on the festive parade of magnificent papier mâché floats that sally forth every Sunday for a month or so and on Shrove Tuesday (the schedule changes each year). You need to arrive early to get a parking space, but you won’t get bored while waiting. The setting is the passegiata or boardwalk with its backdrop of ‘stile liberty’ buildings and beach establishments.

People of all ages come to enjoy the spectacle, many showing off their costumes.

Old

Young

In between

Aspiring teenagers

Animals are there too.

Rare species

Only known case of a ladybird (bug) being born to giraffes

Exotic

Common

Dead

If you’re alert, you’ll see some amusing vignettes.

Ciao tutti!

Which storybook are you from?

He-man

She wasn’t impressed?

There’s fast food…

Fast food

…and slow food.

Cacciucco (fish stew) at a bagno

At 3 pm three canon shots announce the start of the parade of floats.

Puffs of smoke from the canon

Some are several storeys tall…

Obama above the bankers

…and others are people on the ground wearing elaborate headdresses.

Berlusconi beneath the babes

Some satirise politicians…

Superman to the rescue

Cradle snatcher

Who’s she?

…and some feature films and pop stars.

Nearly his last appearance

Some are monuments to the skill and ingenuity of the people who design and build the floats, now full-time jobs.

Flying and breathing fire as the band plays and choir sings

As the sun sets, the floats go round for the last time and spectators drift happily homewards.

I’d like to thank Klaus Falbe-Hansen for his keen eye, excellent photos and unfailing sense of humour at Carnival 2010.

You still have time to catch one of the Carnival parades at Viareggio this year (2022):

Sunday 20 February - 3 pm
Fat Thursday 24 February - 6 pm
Sunday 27 February - 3 pm
Fat Tuesday 1 March - 3 pm
Saturday 5 March  - 5 pm
Saturday 12 March - 5 pm

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This blog was originally published on Slow Travel Tours on 12 February 2012.