We arrived in the afternoon and made our way toward the boardwalk where the festivities were taking place. Viareggio is a beach town and they completely block off the main drag along the water for the festival. Inside the fenced off area, there are many food and drink booths, souvenirs of various types, lots of confetti and silly string dealers, and tons of people in various levels of costume. You notice the wigs Stacey and I have...Ashley and Arya wanted to have fancy wigs, so we purchased some for them knowing well that they wouldn't wear them all night. Sure enough, within about 5 minutes Arya had given up on hers and 10 minutes after that, Ashley had called it quits too. So Mom and Dad got to be fancy instead!
Before the parade, people mill about and socialize, drink, and generally party. It was a nice sort of party atmosphere though. It didn't feel like a bunch of college kids in Florida at Spring Break sort of party, but more everyone partying at their own level and knowing what's appropriate crazy and when to draw the line. A great atmosphere for the kids.
The floats and parade are the major draws of this celebration. Carnival was originally a time to celebrate and get wild before the season of Lent began. You could pig out and be silly before giving things up and becoming a bit more serious in the season leading up to Easter. It's said around here that everyone needs a time where they're allowed to be crazy and this is that time. The tradition of masks and costumes, seen most famously in Venice, comes from the tradition that during Carnival, everyone from every social class is equal. It's the one time a year where every group: socioeconomic, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity can let loose with no fear of judgement. The costumes give that layer of safety and freedom that embodies that spirit of sameness through difference.
The people of Viareggio long ago decided to use the freedom of Carnival to make political comments in the safety of the festivities. They started creating parade floats that mocked the government leadership, spoke to political problems of the day, and allowed the common man an opportunity to let his thoughts be heard without fear of retribution. To this day, that tradition continues. Most of the floats have a social commentary attached to them, some purely nationalistic, some political, others simply speaking to the human condition. It's quite unusual and I was thoroughly impressed.
Beyond the symbolic nature of the floats however is their size. They are massive. You can kind of see in the pictures and video how big they are, but I don't think they quite convey the immensity. You feel dwarfed next to them. Other than the inflatable balloons at the Macy's Parade, I don't remember seeing anything approaching the size of the major floats.
We managed to get grandstand seats that gave us front row seats to the parade which lasted almost 3 hours. At the end of the parade, there was a grand finale fireworks show that ranked up there with the best I have seen. It wasn't timed to music nor did it have a story element like a Disney sort of show, but it was very well planned and had a great flow to performance. And that finale! The sort of finale where you get a ton of fireworks and think "This is it," but then there's more and it's overwhelming. But then it gets even louder and more sky-filled. But then there's even more...by the peak of the finale I don't believe there was any black sky left to be seen. The sky was pure sparks. So cool.
As seems to be our lot, the day wouldn't be complete without an adventure. The short version is that the last train for the day left during the fireworks so we had to spend a good extra hour or so searching for a taxi. We waited at the train station, walked around to search on our own, went to a gelato shop to ask for help (they were none), and eventually waited it out at the station again where a taxi eventually showed up to get us home. That's the short version. Trust me, in real life it was quite the experience.
Below is a video I threw together of the major floats from the parade. The music in the background is the main theme music from Viareggio Carnevale. It will get stuck in your head. You're welcome. After that are some stills of the floats. Speaking of the politicial nature, you should notice German prime minister Angela Merkel in a rather...compromising position (she's actually birthing little Italian prime minster Matteo Renzis), a large marionette in La Scala, and an Obama/Putin/Xi Jinping "don't blow up the world" among others. Do yourself a favor and at least check those out if not the video. You'll be impressed. I promise.
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