A Roman Carnevale
As many of you may well know, today is the first day of Carnevale. And while festivities in other parts of Italy – ahem, Venice – are world famous, Rome is usually pretty stagnant at this time of the year. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll find confetti all over the cobblestones of the city and children will be dressed up for the occasion. There are also lots of Carnevale themed club nights where everyone dresses up in costume, but nothing really city sponsored. Well that all changed this year. In typical fashion it was only really advertised this week, but the city decided to revive some old Carnevale traditions, including a parade down the via del Corso, so I braved the rainy weather to get some pics for you guys. Perhaps you didn’t realize, but until the late 1800s Carnevale was celebrated with riderless horse races down the via del Corso (hence the name — corso means track), but it was outlawed when deemed cruel (the horses often had firecrackers set off at their heels so they would run. Obviously that wasn’t happening this time out! I’m always a bit skeptical about if these sorts of city initiatives stick, and to be honest I’d trade this for the Notte Bianca any day! Still, it made for a fun diversion as I started taking photos in the centro.
Beautiful!
Beautiful shots! Thanks for sharing them.
this looks like a really fun festival to watch!
leethroughthelens.blogspot.com
Great carnevale photos – I think the guy in the top grey suit attracted some attention from the ladies, non?
Thanks everyone, it was cute and fun to shoot.
Leif – In fact, he was talking to two women when I took those photos! I personally liked his good posture
soo…. this is awkward, but I have a crush on the guy up top.