Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Carnevale Romano comes to a close

My little Maya and the tall lady
The Roman city coffers were empty this year so the elaborate celebrations we were fortunate enough to see two years ago did not take place. Here is a re-post of the 2012 festivities. For this year's photos and description, please see the blog on www.thekirkoscaravan.com!

Scenes from Carnevale Romano 2012


A caravan of traveling minstrels and Commedia dell' Arte characters
Street artist as shrubbery, Piazza Navona

Commedia dell' Arte actors
A parade of bambini in maschera on the Janiculum
The Roman elementary schools visited the piazze to throw confetti
The eleven days of Carnevale Romano are now long behind us and the forty days of quaresima (Lent) are rapidly dropping away before us on the road to Easter. Keeping up with the celebrations related to the liturgical calendar and the sanctoral cycle can be an exhausting undertaking in Rome, particularly with young children in tow. But we were certainly rewarded for our efforts this year with beautifully costumed street artists in Piazza Navona and a spectacular equestrian show  in Piazza del Popolo. The Carnevale Romano has been an annual event for only three years now, but styles itself as a reincarnation of a very old carnival tradition in Rome, going back to ancient times. During the Renaissance Rome even rivaled Venice in its feast of saying "farewell to meat" ("carne" means meat, "vale" farewell). Rome preferred horse races to gondola races, however. So much so, in fact, that via del Corso (the way of the race), one of the central streets of the historic center of Rome, was created for purpose of horse races. Here are a few photos from the horse show on Martedi Grasso.




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