I see that February is Carnivale time in Venice - has anyone been? How crazy is it? We are wanting to do a Venice / Florence / Rome trip next year - and thought this would be a quiet time ( well, quiet for Italy ) to go. Will we have to book a room now? Any thoughts? Thanks!
Posted by
Calitri, Avellino, Italy (& US - where I live the majority of the time)
223 posts
yup. It is totally crazy :-) I was just thinking about it actually...was at the St. Patrick's Day parade in NYC...and thinking...wow. this is almost as crazy as Carnivale in Venice ;-) Dinfatley a great experience though (I think anyway! I wouldn't wnat to do it every year though) The further away from St. Marks's, the less chaotic - and, things usually do quiet down at night when tons of day-trippers leave. Not sure when you'd need to book rooms...but I would probably do it whenever I was able to know my dates (and, if you find somewhere that is refundable, it can't hurt to have something secured anyway!) I lived in Padova years ago and even the rooms there got booked up way in advance for Carnival...a few times, they stopped all trains into Venice for a while (few hours maybe)from the mainland because the it too jammed with people (!)
Posted by
OP
Vancouver, BC, Canada
84 posts
Oh man - that's what I was afraid of! :( Do you think it would be better to be in Venice at the start or the end of Carnivale? Any suggestions on where to stay? Any help is much appreciated!
Posted by
Calitri, Avellino, Italy (& US - where I live the majority of the time)
223 posts
The start would be less crowded...I haven't been in years though, so, unfortunately, I don't know a great place to stay (our last couple of trips, we have just used our Starwood points for free rooms - another trip, I really enjoyed staying in the Cannereggio area - a bit away from it all)
Posted by
OP
Vancouver, BC, Canada
84 posts
Thank you - you have been a great help!