A rainy day here, the city empty, a guard posted at the entrance to both my bank and the nearby post office to allow only a couple of people indoors at one time--so as to allow for the "social distancing" believed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
This seems a good day to finally post some images of Carnevale I didn't have a chance to put up before it was closed down two days ahead of schedule.
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| Vividly colored contact lenses were popular this year (above and below) |
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| Orbs are a favorite prop for those whose taste in costumes run toward the esoteric |
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| And of course you can't go wrong with huge wings (especially when paired with a mask decorated with unicorns) |
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| Sometimes costumes are inspired by necessity rather than whimsy. The fella above was well-known to Venice residents in his previous guise as a severely-doubled over, splay-footed begging man--until local media caught him standing tall and looking fit during his time off. He was reported to have taken his show on the road for a time, but it seems he's decided to return to Venice in a new get-up and gender: the same severely doubled over posture, but a shawl covering his all-too-well-known face. |
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| Each year I'm always a bit surprised by the number of elaborately costumed people I see who have hired professional photographers to shoot them in various locales around the city. Of course, as can be seen in the image above taken near the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, one person's romantic 18th-century backdrop is just another person's contemporary worksite. |
I think I remember seeing that chap ... or one very like him, in the Railway Station area, some years back. There was a similar woman usually in the Scalzi bridge area, too, I recall.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's kind of the uniform for women beggars in Venice, Ella, but it's a new look for this all-too-well-known guy, whom you probably did see near the train station, as I seem to recall that was one of his regular haunts.
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