Venice Carnival Travel Guide 2025

CIAO VENEZIA
CARNIVAL PARADE
OFFICIAL DINNER SHOW
FANTASTIC FACES
MAGNIFICENT MASKS
IL TEMPO DI CASANOVA
IMPRESSUM

Ciao Venezia

In 2025, the Venice Carnival took place from February 15 to
March 4. The origins of this festival date back to 1094. This
centuries-old tradition was revived in its current form in 1979.
In German-speaking countries, Carnival is often celebrated with
copious amounts of alcohol, sometimes loud singing, and large
parades. In Venice, however, the festival is quite different. This
year's parade on the Grand Canal took place on February 16. It
always begins at 11:00 a.m. at Punta della Dogana and
continues along the Grand Canal to Campo Erbaria.
At the head of this water parade sits the famous papier-mâché
figure "Pantegana." This Venetian word means rat. Near the
Rialto Bridge, the giant rat explodes, releasing numerous
balloons and confetti into the air.
Many magnificent and elaborately designed masks are a typical
feature of the Carnival of Venice.
The 2026 Carnival will begin on February 7 and end on
February 17.
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Whenever I find myself in Venice, I
am captivated by the journey across
the water from Mestre to Santa
Lucia. When the conditions are
favourable and the weather
pleasant, I enjoy stopping by the
Hotel Danieli. They serve a superb
brunch on Sundays, yet the rooftop
terrace remains somewhat of a
hidden gem. From this vantage
point, one can enjoy stunning vistas
of the Grand Canal and witness the
sun dip below the horizon while
savouring a romantic dinner.
Izabela
Newrest-Nightjet Team

Carnival parade
© www.carnevale.venezia.it

© www.carnevale.venezia.it
Carnival parade on the water (Corteo acqueo)
On Sunday, February 16, 2025, the traditional Carnival
parade (corteo acqueo) took place on the Grand Canal.
At approximately 11:00 a.m., a carnival procession set
off from Punta della Dogana, a truly unique event.
Around 100 colorfully decorated rowboats sailed
toward Rialto. The procession was led by the
"Pantegana" (rat), which dissolved under the Rialto
Bridge in a shower of confetti and balloons. The
procession culminated in a lively celebration in the
Erbaria.
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© www.carnevale.venezia.it
© www.carnevale.venezia.it
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© www.carnevale.venezia.it
© www.carnevale.venezia.it
© www.carnevale.venezia.it
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Official Dinner Show
© www.carnevale.venezia.it

“Casanova's Reveries” - official dinner show 2025
The Carnival's glamorous official dinner show was
hosted in one of the city's most magnificent palaces,
the Ca' Vendramin Calergi. The evening was reserved
exclusively for guests dressed in period costumes.
The goal was to recreate the era of Casanova. The
dinner was prepared by the chefs of the Wagner
Restaurant.
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© www.carnevale.venezia.it
© www.carnevale.venezia.it
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© www.carnevale.venezia.it
© www.carnevale.venezia.it
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Fantastic faces

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Magnificent masks

Casanova's Time (Il tempo di Casanova)

In 2025, the water spectacle at the Arsenal presented an evocative portrayal that traced the
life of Giacomo Casanova. Born in Venice on April 17, 1725, this central character is
regarded as one of the most debated yet revered personalities of the Venetian Republic. The
performance paid tribute to the existence of this intricate, flamboyant, and boundarypushing
individual through the reflections of Henriette, the sole woman whom Casanova
ever genuinely cherished.
A plethora of visuals and striking vignettes encapsulate the spirit of Giacomo Casanova. In
seven dynamic chapters, the tumultuous life of this historical figure, straddling the line
between reality and imagination, is vividly depicted. Giacomo Casanova defied all societal
norms and turned his existence into an extravagant festivity.
The script is a loose reinterpretation of the original "Sette canzoni per Casanova" by
Antonella Barina. The production was brought to fruition by Vela Spa.
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Chapter 1: Comets
Comets, exceptional creatures bearing lights and shadows,
strange and different individuals. Perhaps celebrated, but long
misunderstood.
Never indifferent. Who are you, Giacomo Casanova, citizen of
the Republic of Venice. Loved or hated, absolved or
condemned? Born in Venice three hundred years ago in Calle
della Commedia, incarnated in the restless womb of Zanetta, a
renowned actress. The bright goddess of the child you once
were. Let yourself now be reached by me, my soul. By
me, Henriette, the lover you longed for, throughout your life. I
loved you too. Did you ever doubt it?
We met in the mid-eighteenth century at the Carnival in Venice,
my soul. Venice which is a dream, a surprise, amazement.
A Carnival, the beginning of this story.
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Chapter 2: Your life
Now I see your life, Giacomo. A magic lantern casting light on
the backdrop where rises, in all its chaos, the city on water that
the whole world speaks of.
Venice the Most Serene, land of love and deceit of epic battles
and resounding defeats of lavish celebrations and grand
funerals predator and shield of the Mediterranean Sea.
Now, I wish to delve deeper into what you truly were,
a transgressive, encyclopaedic creature of that 18th-century
that, with a dancer’s step, swept history off its feet.
You were a playwright, writer. Poet, philosopher. Scientist!
Giacomo the adventurer, the Freemason, the diplomat the
gambler, the secret agent, the spy.
Casanova the prolific scholar, the alchemist and esoteric, the
mathematician who transforms.
To all, unavoidably, the tireless seducer.
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Chapter 3: The adventure
Imprisoned for the crime of necromancy you, Giacomo,
contested in vain the unjust punishment. With the desire for
freedom and the longing for love, you escaped from where no
one could flee.
In your most famous adventure, the escape from the Piombi
prison.
By outwitting the jailers, you sharpened a tool to carve through
the hard plaster of the cell ceiling.
Then from the roof of the Doge’s dwelling you entered the
nocturnal labyrinth of the palace of thousand rooms.
Impudent. Bold. Presumptuous. Trembling, desperate and tired.
But irreducible. Rebellious. Stubborn. Sassy.
Fearless you took the exit. You reached the pier where a
gondola was waiting for you to take you towards the
mainland.
Ah, freedom, which without love is powerless. Love, which
without freedom cannot fly.
After the dark dungeon, freedom at last, freedom!
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Chapter 4: The traveller
All around Italy, and across all of Europe, you wandered through
courts and palaces more than a hundred cities. Paris, Vienna,
Warsaw, Geneva, Amsterdam, London to St Petersburg and on to
Latvia and Lithuania, and down across the Pyrenees to Marseilles,
Madrid, Pamplona, Barcelona, Corfu and Constantinople.
Yet, as a swindler, you also frequented dive bars and brothels, in
good company, favouring maids and dames of every rank.
It was you, between Dresden and Prague, who helped Mozart
complete, ironically, that Don Giovanni with whom you are often
confused.
But you loved! Don Giovanni, instead, loved to collect.
In your youth, you played the violin in the theatre Goldoni
directed, learning to deal with servants and nobles, senators and
ambassadors.
You duelled in words with Voltaire and Rousseau, meeting counts,
marquises and emperors, adventurers, gentlemen and ladies.
Catherine of Russia, Crébillon, d’Alembert, Abbot Voisenon, the
Count of Cagliostro.
Even a Pope was your friend—only few know you once were an
abbot! That Benedict XIV who allowed you to read forbidden
books: Copernicus, Descartes, Giordano Bruno.
That Pope performed great works of charity, knowing that saying
Mass, breaking hosts, and preaching was not your calling.
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Chapter 5: Free spirit
“Free spirit,” you called yourself, yet you were devoted to an
unknown Goddess. You did not fear contradicting yourself
often, so long as you could explore the new, knowing
that perhaps everything is a dream, and that transgression is
the high jump of intelligence.
Though not a magician of the arcane sciences, you studied
them deeply to determine the boundary that separates us from
the Beyond and to understand how far one can dare to go.
Giacomo, you were jester of the Golden Book of that nobility
which welcomed you in Venice and eventually rejected you.
You embodied the exception. You loved scandal above all. You
made a religion out of enjoyment, with all that the body and
spirit can savour in bed.
Judge of your own will with the subtle pleasure of showing the
timid that life is brief.
You, son of an actress, were the first to pass on in literature the
knowledge of ancient peoples on Hollow Lands where time
stands still.
You rode fantasy alongside the purest physics, writing of Lost
Worlds underground, where Nature runs wild in other forms
and with incredible creatures.
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Chapter 6: Eros
You guessed every women’s longing. Not the gallantry of a
cicisbeo nor languid gazes, or the unsheathing of swords. As
below, so above.
To divine the desire.
Conquests bitten where the skin is thinnest, leaping from one
bed to another, plunging into flesh for the Alchemy of body and
spirit.
But your true seduction was listening, my Socratic lover. And the
yearning to love.
One single weakness: women in men’s attire. As you have never
forgotten, at that Carnival I wore a military uniform.
I rather suspect you applied mathematical logic to the erotic
realm, as chapters of that treatise you entitled: Magnitude,
Mechanics, Form, Balance, Increase, Speed, Nature, Muse,
Reasonings, Illusions, Evidence, Experiences, Truth!
After having experienced everything, even he who has tasted it
all falls.
Have you calmed down? Are you satisfied? Or would you wish to
start anew?
Or would you return to me today, Giacomo?
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Chapter 7: A love story
The finite infinite is our chapter. Neither man nor woman:
both.
We seduced each other in the many names of dreaming.
Once, for us, between us there have been three months of real
love.
I fooled myself into thinking you weren’t so important.
You, librarian of dreams, my secret adventure, my unfulfilled
marriage, my perfect lover without a body.
My flower without a butterfly, upon you I rest. Lie down now
and rest with me, Giacomo Casanova. I have returned.
Extinctus amabitur idem. You said: “They will love me when I
am dead.
And I love you, alive, in the present.
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The team
This e-book was made possible through the kind support of the
regional tourist offices and the OBB. German proofreading and
editorial:Martin Andergassen. English version: Katie Lang
References
Text, videos and photos by Rudolf J. Strutz unless otherwise
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