FLORENCE, ITALY – Carnival is an Italian festive season which occurs immediately before Lent, typically involves a public celebration and parade with mask and public street party. The main events in Tuscany are scheduled in Viareggio and Florence.
The Carnival of Viareggio is one of the most famous events in Italy. It has a 141 years of history, with more than 400 parades and thousands of papier-mâché floats. The “Masters” of Viareggio create the magnificent allegorical papier – mâché floats and more than 25 artisan firms, with more than a thousand people at work, are engaged throughout the year in the realization of real travelling theatres. In many cases, they have inherited skills and secrets of a unique craft in the world from their fathers and grandfathers.
More than 20 meters high, 12 meters wide, the papier-mâché giant floats are created to dazzle the spectators with extraordinary choreographic effects. The visual impact, the music, the colours, the brightness of the figures on the floats, together with the spectacular movements that defy the laws of physics, make wagons real travelling theatres that are unique in the world. Every year at the end of the show a selected jury draws up the merit table, declaring winners and losers.
The first parade took place in 1873 and the fifth masked parade of the Carnival 2014 coincides with the 400th in the history of the event. In these 141 years 766 big floats, 476 second category floats, 858 groups of masks and 738 isolated masks have been created by the “Masters” of the Papier Mâché.
Parades are scheduled Sunday 2nd March 3:00 pm; Tuesday 4th March 2:50 pm and Sunday 9th March 3:00 pm.
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