Venetians celebrated the beginning of the Carnival with the extravagant history of the floating city with a decadent street party on the streets and the waterways.
Thousands gathered to look at dressed revellers donning the kinds of masks reminiscent of the balls attended by the city’s legendary lothario Casanova. Many of the outfits looked to be fresh from the stage of a Shakespeare play, set in the hedonistic houses of Italy’s prosperous Renaissance period.
The 2016 Carnival of Venice will run from January 23 to February 9 and includes a program of gala dinners, parades, dances, masked balls and music events
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