Carnivale in Venice - loads of piccies!

[jim_mex]

Hi folks

Last Sunday was the final weekend of the Carnivale season 2012 in Venice which finishes this Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) and despite the area being plagued with very cold weather for most of the festive period, the weather warmed up enough on Sunday to warrant me making a trip to take in the fun and games.

I've now visited Venice 4 times during the past 6 months and each trip has introduced me to new aspects of this fascinating city but this latest trip was definitely the icing on the cake so far.

I came back with a bunch of photos some of which I'm happy to say are a definite improvement on my previous snaps.

I've bundled them together into a couple of similar presentation files, one in Flash swf format which runs to about 6 Mb size and the other as a much better quality Powerpoint 2007 slide show presentation. This is a large 40 Mb file.

I'm sorry that the file sizes aren't any smaller but they do contain a lot of high resolution images so for folks on a slow connection who wish to view them please try to download the files first so you can run them at your leisure later on.

The presentation begins with a few introductory text slides with my usual ramblings but after that its images all of the way.

Feel free to comment on any of the content.

Hope you enjoy the show

Ciao!

Flash Presentation - 6MB - click to view direct or right button click and save to open later in your internet browser or any flash supported media player

Powerpoint 2007 Show - high resolution images - 40MB - click to save and open automatically in Powerpoint 2007

[sappy]

What fun! Great photos, thank you for the trip!

[wedo]

Jim, really enjoyed your pictures and all the colorful costumes. Venice is a delightful city and I have enjoyed both times I've been there although not during Carnivale.
Bill

[Tango]

Jim - Thanks for sharing a unique view of Venice
- Donna

[Jan]

Great photos of fascinating people, Amico!

Jan

[Scrolling Days]

Can't get those to work on the ipad, since mine doesn't have Flash yet, but i look forward to looking at them on my computer tomorrow, Jim. I would LOVE to see Venice someday.....actually any of the European countries would be great. Until then, i'll sate my apetite with some extra helpings of Paul Newman's Italian dressing. .

I'm glad you are having such a good time.

I just ordered a book for my daughter called "The Thief Lord" which is supposed to be a Dickens style Victorian tale, but centered in Venice. After she is done, i'll have to share your pics with her, so she can get a feel for the city in modern times.

Have fun, and watch out for the deep puddles!

[Kiwi]

Thanks for sharing. definitely a different view of the city

[Wood Dog]

Sweeeeeet pix Jim, enjoyed the Flash presentation, narration was excellent as usual.
Unable to open PowerPoint show, have a very very old version of PowerPoint.
Time is flying, and I'm sure you are eager to get home. Stay safe, be well and thanks once again for taking us along.

[jim_mex]

Thanks to all for dropping in on my show

I apologize for not catering to everyone's technical limitations with the file types I posted. A little later on I'll add the best of these photos to my web gallery page which will make them a lot more accessible.

Finding time to sort the shots out of my visits around Italy isn't so easy these days with my workload increasing as my contract draws towards an end at the end of April - Yep, despite comments to contrary from various forum friends I do actually work whilst I'm out here! - I still have a ruck of shots from a Christmas visit to Tuscany, in particular Florence (Firenza) and Siena, which I'd like to share which show some interesting medieval city shots as well as some of the more famous religious buildings and I'm pulling the stops out to get them organized and posted soon.

With just 2 months left in Italy and still loads of places I'd still like to visit I'm going to have to be very selective where I go next but I'm hoping to make at least one trip up into the southern dolomite mountains to the north of me and also pull in the nearby city of Bologna and maybe Milan.

Meanwhile I'll keep living up to my adapted motto ' All work and no play makes Jim a dull boy' . and I definitely don't want to come across as being dull, now do I

Thanks again to all for encouraging me to share my travelogues.

Ciao!

[frieke]

Wow Jim, thanks for sharing so much pictures! It looks like you had a lot of fun to make them. The pps works fine for me!

[playmeforafool]

Thanks for all the cool pics Jim. If anyone else is interested, here are some neat pics from other Carnival celebrations around the world. The effort that everyone puts into these celebrations is amazing.

1. Rio De Janeiro Carnival 2012 - TotallyCoolPix
2. Carnival Around The World 2012 - TotallyCoolPix
3. Sao Paolo Carnival 2012 - TotallyCoolPix
4. Carnival 2012 - The Big Picture - Boston.com
5. Carnival 2012 - In Focus - The Atlantic
6. More From Carnival 2012 - In Focus - The Atlantic

[jim_mex]

@playmeforafool - Some nice links there, thanks!

Carnival celebrations definitely take on a large element of sohisticated, orchestrated planning and effort in many parts of the world and not without considerable cost. However, putting aside the posing, exhibitionism and sheer commercialism of modern day carnivals the thing that I really enjoyed about my walk around Venice was seeing ordinary people using some imagination and dressing up for fun and a bit of uninhibited escapism, something I think that most of us enjoyed as young kids but all too often put aside as we got older.

[Forester21]

Well worth the over 2 hour wait for the download Jim!! Thank you for posting. The pictures are fantastic and give only a small taste of what it is like there I'm sure.
T

[JimSawyer]

Multa Biene....(and I'm sure I spelled that wrong..lol)...!!!!

That was just a fantastic journey Jim....!!!!
Great presentation too...

Looks surreal,
and fun, and scary, and beautiful, and weird...
Thanks for the ride Bud...