marchy007

Which part of the Venice carnivale is better to be at - first or last 5 days? There are conflicting opinions online. We plan 2024 Carnivale, it runs February 3-13.

annhig

It rather depends what you want to do. There are balls and other big events at the end of the carnevale season which may interest you, but if not the beginning is IME just as good and less busy. You will typically see people wandering round in Carnevale costume, sometimes very elaborate costumes doing photoshoots. It's especially nice at night seeing the vaporetti full of people in costume. Also there are special foods, like fritelle which are pastries filled with cream, custard or fruit that are delicious, and very popular. But take warm clothes as the wind can be biting and wellingtons or other waterproof boots in case of acqua alta [high water]. Normally now when acqua alta is expected they raise the Mose flood defence barriers but it's still useful to have warm footwear that will keep your feet dry.

marchy007

Great, thank you. And comment about boots is important, I did not think about it.

stokebailey

We enjoyed going a day before it started and then a couple more days. One drizzly evening, we had the Piazza San Marco almost entirely to ourselves. The Saturday we left, the streets were jammed.

Oh, the costumes on the streets, especially early on before it got so crowded.