Venetian Events

Wrapping Carnival

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Today is Martedi’ Grasso (Mardi Gras) and Carnival is wrapping up.  It wrapped up a few days ago in via Garibaldi, not with a bang, not with anything. On Giovedi’ Grasso, the stage, inflatable slide and trampolines were going full tilt, overrun by swarms of unchained children.  The day after, nothing.  Everything was just … gone.

There are still frittelle and galani on sale and the streets are still speckled with confetti, yet the revelers are nowhere to be seen.  I think whoever’s still around has migrated to the Piazza San Marco, where the big closing events take place.  I won’t be there.  I’ll be sitting at home in the dark, like some addict, secretly eating the last of the galani.

Galani, the last batch. They are doomed and so am I.
Frittelle veneziane are somewhat difficult to find; lately everybody seems to want them filled with pastry cream or zabaglione. I stick with the traditional solid balls of fried dough.  I bought this one not because I’m so crazy about frittelle, but because I couldn’t resist the chance to break off all those little stick-out bits.  I’m so easy to entertain.
“Today there are mammaluchi.”  Readers may remember that the Pasticceria Targa near the Rialto market is the only place I’ve found that offers a special Carnival sweet called “mammaluchi.”  Not the knightly military caste drawn from the ranks of slave warriors (thanks, Wikipedia), but an equally dangerous pastry.
The Mamluks had a special sword, but I think this could have be just as effective in your average skirmish. It would just take a little longer for your adversary to collapse.  The filling is dough, but of a moisture and density that make you take them seriously.  Two is actually too many, but I didn’t let that stop me.
I receive absolutely no compensation for this mention, they don’t even know who I am. Just that wild-eyed foreigner who comes in every year asking if the mammaluchi are ready yet.
I didn’t go on a hunt for costumes to photograph, mainly because so many of them are so trite. I don’t judge, I know the people concealed within are having a wonderful time. I just feel embarrassed taking pictures that everybody else is taking, especially of something so unimaginative.  Here, a group of massive costumes was disembarking from the #1 vaporetto.
I kind of liked these dudes, even if they had rented the garb. I was fascinated by the fact that all of them had 12 white dots. I have no idea how you play a game of dominos if all the tiles have the same number of dots, but at least they were being whimsical.  I award points for whimsy.
And speaking of whimsy, this was the scene in via Garibaldi on Fat Thursday. The munchkins from the local nursery school are dressed up as either little pigs (the girls) or wolves (boys). The masks were handmade of the ever-reliable construction paper.
The pigs were especially adorable, not only because they were scarfing up frittelle and fruit juice but because they had to move their masks aside to make way for the food. The mask itself is a small masterpiece, held on by a circlet of pink construction paper.
This was an exceptional minimalist costume. The mask was a small cardboard carton just sitting on his shoulders, and he must have had fun making a sword that wants to be a Mamluk bread knife.
Seen at the Rialto market: A couple wearing chef’s toques, the father carrying their little girl on his back, disguised as a ….
…lobster. That’s what I always say, never leave home without a clean handkerchief and a lobster.
Yes, I know you want to stay out past dark, but it’s time to go home. Pack it up till next year.
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