Festa delle Marie and Flight of the Angel (Volo dell'Angelo)

Blue skies, sun, not too chilly temperatures. Much better day for the Festa delle Marie. Unfortunately  it would have  to be a very abbreviated version in order to fit in with all the other events scheduled for the day.  No parade from San Pietro di Castello yesterday, instead the parade groups began in the Piazzetta.

I got out early.  As I was hustling through the Piazzetta I caught a glimpse of a few of the beautiful costumes lined up along the Riva and of the parade groups getting into formation.   Lady luck was with me, or so I mistakenly believed, as I managed to get a pretty darned good spot right at the parade barricade leading up to the main stage. The parade would pass right in front of me! My camera was snapping from start to finish- well, almost finish.  Lady luck only went so far,-both my camera battery and backup went dead. With about 30 minutes of milling about until the Flight of the Angel at exactly 12 noon,  I figured I could at least could get some shots of the Angel in descent.  Just as the Angel was about to step off the platform and take off, my iPhone battery also went dead. Despite a little run of bad luck, I stayed to witness the Angel's flight anyway.  It was magnificent.

Here's a recap of the morning's events in photos. Enjoy a little taste of Carnevale!

Flag throwers warming up. Groups from surrounding areas of the Veneto come to participate, all in traditional garb.

The cable used for the flight of the angel was tested about an hour pre flight.

The Doge and his entourage arrives !

  Following the Doge are the 12 Maries. The first few are carried on the shoulders of gondoliers.

 This fellow is the King of the Gnocchi's, leading a bunch of other gnocchi's. I have forgotten which city they came from.

 Best shoes of the day!

The official website of Carnevale 2013 posted a video of the Flight of the Angel on You Tube, the link is below.  Watching it is the  next best thing to being there with me. Enjoy!


Click here to watch Flight of the Angel video

Prelude to Carnevale

They're back!!!!  Frittelle, that tasty little morsel of fried dough stuffed with crema, zabaiglone or ricotta and made only in the Venice area and ONLY at Carnevale time, have been sighted in bakeries this week!!

Unfortunately this is not a great photo, but I couldn't resist snapping a quick shot with my phone as I passed the bakery next to our apartment, so you get a lovely reflection of one of the buildings across the canal as a bonus!

I've been vowing to eat more sensibly  in the hopes of shedding the extra pounds I put on while eating with sheer abandon during our vacation and the holidays. Frittelle are not going to help my cause any!  Already I've had two of them!  I had to introduce our friends Anne and Kate from St.Louis to them, so we stopped off at Rizzardini's where I ate my first of the season, filled with zabaiglone. Heaven!  What is it about fried dough???

Yesterday, I HAD to have one filled with ricotta, so I ducked into the Majer. I will bet you there is another ricotta filled frittelle coming home with me today.

Frittelle in the bakery is the first sign that Carnevale is on it's way. It's almost like hearing robins singing- you know spring is right around the corner. Same with Frittelle.  Our harbinger of Carnevale season.

This year, similar to last year, Venice will host a weekend of events Feb 4-5, prior to the official start of Carnevale which is on Feb 11. Here's a link to the website where you can see a list of all the events requiring tickets, which you can order on the site as well:

http://www.venice-carnival-italy.com/

Some of the biggest events are the Marie's Parade on Feb 11 which starts at San Pietro in Castello and ends in St. Mark's square, and the Flight of the Angel, at noon on Feb 12 in St. Mark's square.

The Marie's parade starts at San Pietro in Castello and ends in St. Mark's square, where the 12 Marie's are presented to the Doge.  Just prior to Carnevale, 12 Marie's are selected in a beauty pageant like contest held at the Casino. These 12 Maries preside over various events throughout the city during Carnevale week, including appearances at several masked balls. At this special parade the Marie's are acompanied by groups of people from cities nearby Venice, in traditional dress. Many of the groups have flag throwers performing. It's an interesting parade to watch full of pomp and ceremony, as well as 12 beautiful Marie's. (Below is small  clip of last year's parade)

The flight of the Angel involves a person "flying" down a wire cable from the Campanile across the square down to the stage at the opposite end of the square where the Doge is waiting to greet them. In previous years, there has been a celebrity "Angel", however in recent times, in a cost cutting effort, the Angel has been the winning Marie from the previous year. This year will be the same. It doesn't matter who does the flying, it's an event worth experiencing to kick off the big Carnevale week. St. Mark's square will be packed to capacity, with barely room to breathe.  You can purchase a ticket to get a close up spot for the Flight of the Angel, however the majority of the throng will just be jammed into the square with cameras, sans a good position, just like me.

Here's a list of some of the famous "Angels" from the past few years ( just in case you were curious, as I was).


2005: Carolina Marconi, model and actress;
 2006: Manuela Levorato, sprinter;
 2007: Federica Pellegrini, swimmer;
2008: Coolio, rap singer, with a costume by Moschino;
2009: Margherita Maccapani Missoni, actress, with a costume by Missoni;
2010: Bianca Brandolini d'Adda, model, with a costume by Giambattista Valli;
2011: Silvia Bianchini, winner of the beauty contest of the Festa delle Marie 2010, with a costume by Emanuela Finardi and Stefano Nicolao.

And finally, a clip of the Flight of the Angel from a previous year, to get you sufficiently psyched for Carnevale 2012!

Carnevale 2011

The flight of the Angel took place in ST. Mark's square on Saturday afternoon. This is one of the kickoff events of Carnevale.

Note: In previous years, the Angel has been a celebrity, generally Italian. This year it was a lovely Venetian, 23 yr old Silvia Bianchini.  Silvia was the Carnevale 2010 "Marie".  Each year 12 beautiful young Venetian women are chosen to be the Marie's. They are featured in the Marie's Parade on opening day of Carnevale and also appear at numerous functions during the week. On the last day, one of them is chosen to be "The" Marie.

Because of high winds on Saturday, Silvia did  not wear a 12 meter long portion of her costume.  She looked a bit frightened to me, but thankfully she perservered. She made the descent gracefully!