Carnevale happens in Rio di Janeiro, Venice and several other places around the world. Viareggio has been celebrating Carnevale since 1873, with a couple of breaks around the war years.
In 1873 some wealthy residents decided to organise a parade of floats adorned with flowers. The idea has continued to develop over the years and now huge and intricate floats are made from papier mache and often have a theme of political satire…some of it very cruel indeed.
This year was my fourth at Carnevale, and on a beautiful blue sky day I stood with thousands of others to watch the papier mache giants wend they way slowly around the main street of Viareggio.
The character Burlamacco was created in 1931 and has become the mascot of Carnevale and the town. He made a large and colourful appearance this year.
Pirates were a popular theme this year. This float managed to combine piracy with plastic surgery…or something with pegs.
The No Progress Party…or Italy needs to grow up… made fun of Italy’s politicians.
The meaning of the next one is unclear to me, but it was very colourful and pretty.
There was a large rooster in a chicken wire coop, being ridden by Angela Merkel and surrounded by chickens representing EU countries.
Pirates in the form of European leaders.
Religion came in for a little criticism.
This one was spectacular and beautiful.
I have no idea of the meaning of the beautiful face in prison. It was accompanied by operatic music.
The next group caused much mirth with the audience.
The media circus was represented…followed by sheep.
There was lots more, some of which I will cover in the next post. I missed Berlusconi this year. He made a couple of small appearances, but nothing like previous years.
Click here to see my favourite float about the illustrious ex-leader of Italy, here to see the fabulous Big Green Man and here to see some of the floats from 2012.
In the next post I will show you some of the people in the audience as well. People love to dress up and have a great time. There is loud music, dancing and whole families take part in a completely mad event.