Check out our adventure and discover the gorgeous Viareggio Carnival
"Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful" - T.N. Hanh
Viareggio Carnival is one of the most important in Italy and it is a joyful celebration of happiness, colors and show!
This year 6 amazing parades will attract thousands of visitors from everywhere with their giant, allegorical papier-maché floats facing contemporary topics, from climate change to economy and political facts.. don't miss iy out!
Start your Carnival full immersion looking this short video
The parade
As every year, the parades take place along the seaside avenue of Viareggio, also known from locals as "La Passeggiata". Daily tickets to participate to this show and to enjoy the Carnival atmosphere can be bought outside the access gates; it is not needed to reserve in advance and you can check the official program on line at http://viareggio.ilcarnevale.com/en/programma-eventi/parades/ .
Once there you will be projected into a joyful world, full of masks, folkloristic bands and performers. You can freely move within the parade or find a good place to stay and look the floats moving among the ring.
If you prefer to stay in one place and enjoy the show we suggest you one of these two top spots:
Piazza Mazzini: absolutely the best place if you want to enjoy the dances in front of the floats and all the special effects to impress the public. Here there is also a stage with some speakers presenting the history behind each float and many other things around Viareggio Carnival. Important: this is also the busiest place and it is possible that you will be squized among all the other people ;-)
Royal Hotel: the space in front of the Royal Hotel is our top spot. It is less crowded than Piazza mazzini but all the floats offer their best performance also in this area!
The allegorical floats
The distinctive characteristic of Viareggio Carnival are the allegorical papier-maché floats,
real travelling theaters representing some of the most important contemporary topics. You will never see something comparable in any other Carnival in the world!
This year continues the saga of the climate change and the massive impact of humans responsible of the pollution of our planet.
Here below we present you some of the floats we mostly liked from our last visit:
1. Home sweet Home - authors Lebigre and Roger: Protagonist of the float is Greta Thunberg and her loud call to action against the climate change: our planet is close to the no-return point and an immediate action has never been so crucial. The float represents an allegorical message taking inspiration from "Wizard of Oz" novel: a change is still possible, but only following our brain, courage and hearth we can bring a new course of awareness, attention and action to save the world.
This is absolutely the float we love most! Not only for its message and for the beauty of the construction, but also for the amazing soundtrack of Luca Bassanese.. practically impossible not to love it when all the masks dance in fromt of the float!!!
2. Beata Ignoranza (Blessed ignorance): the giant Centaur dominating the float represents the spreading of ignorance, dangerously pushed by the bad use of internet, social media and reality shows. Nowadays we read less books than in the past and people rely their knowledge on internet where fake news risk to misrepresent the reality.
3. A caccia di un lieto fine (Hunting for a happy ending) - author L. Bertozzi: Tigers risk the extinction because of man but the hope is that a new course is possible. What we love from this float is the beauty of the giant animals who dominates from the high the parade.
4. Robotika, artificial intelligence - author L. Bonetti: the future lands to Viareggio. Our daily lives are continuously monitored by robotics and IA is nowadays a reality in different fields, from the apps we daily use to a lot of different jobs. But what will happen tomorrow? Will IA will replace all the aspects of human beings?
The big woman face at the center of the float shows a complete internal robotization but the authors warns that robots can never have our feelings.. at least until today.
5. Olè: The subject here is a reversed representation of the iconic "Corrida"show, but for one time the bull takes action showing the red cape to the frightened bullfighter. We appreciate the animal-rights spirit and also the show in fromt of the float is nice.
6. Abbracciami è Carnevale (Hug me, it is carnival) - author F. Galli: this idea has been inspired by the philosopher Luciano De Crescenzo used to say "we are angels with only one wing, thus we can fly only if we embrace". Two strands of DNA creates characters symbolizing universal knowledge like cosmos, music and love. On the front side of the float a smiling King Carnival invites everyone to hug people. Very traditional.
7. Nel Paese delle mervaiglie 2.0 (In Wonderland): another famous novel inspires this float, Alice in Wonderland, with a clear warning on social media. Life represented in the Facebook posts or Instagram stories are not as wonderful as they might seem, and risk to take away our natural way of building relationships with other people.
8. Idol - authors U. Cinquini, S. Cinquini and M. Cinquini: Protagonist is Cristiano Ronaldo, symbolizing the new idols created by people and influencing our daily lives. We appreciated the similarity with the football player and the masks in front of the floats, especially by night
9. Il Grande Balzo (The great leap) - author S. Avanzini: Economy and geopolitics are the subject of this float. The robotic tiger at the center symbolizes the new economic power of people's Republic of China which is flattening United States of America, here represented by the iconic head of Micky Mouse.
To discover more about Viareggio Carnival, have a look to our posts dedicated to this parade dated February 2020 on our Instagram page @2intour
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