I arrived in Venice the day the carnival started. Venice is a magical place, but in carnival is even more special because there are a lot of people wearing really elaborated, classical customs that add a lot to the experience. You need to visit it without prejudices and with an open mind. Yes, Venice is crawled. Yes, it is a tourist trap. But still you need to go there because it is something you need to do if you are visiting Italy.
Venize main channel from Rialto Bridge
A good experience was to get lost in Venice. Without a map and with a poor knowledge about the city – I must admit I thought the city was 10 times smaller and that there were only a few streets with channels – I just started walking and after a while I was completely lost with no tourist or local trying to sell something around. It was just me, the city and the occasional boat and that was fantastic. Another nice experience was to wear a mask and a robe and took pictures with the people on amazing costumes all over the city, particularly on San Marco square. My best experience was at night, when I took a boat from San Marco’s square to go back to the train station sailing thought the big channel. It was absolutely magical.
That's me, on St. Mark Square
I couchsurfed with Massimo Benelli, a very well know couchsurfer that require their guests to wrestle against each other. I heard from this guy when I first joined CS and I’ve been hearing from him from time to time since then. And I finally met him! He taught me how to wrestle and I fought against Amin, a Turkish couchsurfer and also Jürgen, a huge German. Obviously they kicked my ass but It was a different, kind of weird, experience. At least, I learned wrestling!
Carnival's masks are amazing
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