(Read in Italian) Fasten your seat belts…Carnivale is about to unfold in Venice! Seriously! Fasten your seat belts because Saturday February 2 there will be the flight of the Angel in which a beautiful young woman will throw herself off the bell tower of San Marco to mark the beginning of Carnevale!

I thought I already knew a lot about the traditions of Carnevale…the masks, the Commedia dell’arte, the costumes and the masked balls. But recently while reading Venezia Today I learned that before all the Carnevale activities can begin, first there must be the  la processione delle dodici Marie - The procession of the 12 Marias and then il volo dell’angelo – The flight of the angel (sometimes called the “Flight of Colombina” and other times “The flight of the Turk“. You learn something new everyday!

Before the “flight” there is the procession of the Marias that evokes the Venetian Doge’s annual homage to twelve beautiful girls (humble venetian girls, I’ll have you know!) by giving them a magnificent jewels and dowries. The Marias depart from San Pietro di Castello at 2 in the afternoon and march along the bank of the Schiavoni before reaching Piazza San Marco around 4pm in the afternoon where they are introduced to the awaiting crowd and where one of them is selected because of her charms and beauty to recreate the flight of the Angel. Who knew jumping of a building could be a prize for a beauty contest. Only in Italy!

So the next day, the most beautiful and humble Maria of them all, following an antique practice that dates back to the 1500s, will throw herself of the San Marco bell tower (99 meters high) attached to a rope while she is lowered to the loggia do the Palazzo Ducale. This is a recreation of an homage to the Venetian Duke in which he is presented by the young girl with a scepter from heaven with which he proclaims the beginning of Carnevale. The tradition began in the mid-1500′s when a young Turkish acrobat succeeded with the help of balancing stick to tight rope walk to the top of the bell tower. When he came back down he stopped at the balcony of the Ducal Palace and presented the Duke with his gift of a scepter. It became a tradition every year after that up until 1749 when the spectacle ended in tragedy; at one point the acrobat fell to the ground amidst the horrified crowd. Because of this grave accident, the practice was prohibited. (Obviously his seat belt wasn’t fastened well!)

In 2001, however, the Venetian people threw caution to the wind and decided to bring back the famous flight of the angel, throwing a live person from San Marco’s bell tower. For years they had substituted the acrobat with a wooden puppet. Now we can admire not only the antique costumes of old Venezia watching the procession of the Marias, but we can enjoy the harrowing spectacle in which a your girl, for the day named Maria, jumps of the Campanile to swing high above Piazza San Marco, in a blaze of color, music, confetti and balloons!

Welcome Carnevale 2013!

Carnevale 2012 : Volo della colombina

Carnevale 2010 : Volo della colombina

(Leggere in italiano) The other day I received an email from Veronica Risco, the director of Marketing for Palabea, in which she invited me to check out her new website. Palabea - the speaking world was launched in April of 2012 and it is a new site for learning and chatting in a foreign language. It is the first marketplace that allows users from all over the world to learn languages and share knowledge while speaking via video chat about a topic they are really interested in! E-learning is a new trend and CEO Matthias Spanic says: “At Palabea, we believe in the power of human potential. Anyone can learn a new language. We are dedicated to helping individuals.”

Veronica’s message piqued my interest and so I surfed on over to see what Palabea was all about. I found the site easy to navigate and in a few minutes I had subscribed (gratis) and shortly there after, after filling in my information in my account, to understand how the site worked, I made my first “Palabea”. It is called “Let’s Chat! Parliamo d’arte, viaggiare, cultura, film, libri, musica”. The neat thing about this site is that there is a calendaring system for each “Palabea” that allows you to choose a date and time to have a conversation about your topic. Or if you are interested in a particular theme you can simply request a meeting with the author. Continuing to navigate the site I found a large community of Italians on Palabea interested in improving their English. It seems a great exchange. I help someone with their English and they help me with my Italian while discussing something that is interesting to the both of us. I have selected a couple of Palabea in Italian and I can’t wait to have my first meetup next week.

I returned to the site again today to create two more Palabea. Seeing that my first Palabea as a rather broad theme, I decided to make two more that are a little more specific:  “I macchiaioli” to talk about art and “Julia: una criminologa/Dylan Dog” to talk about Italian comics. I am still learning how the next step works, rather how to connect with a friend using the video chat after having made an appointment…but I am sure if it works as the rest of the site does, it will be very easy to use. Come join me on Palabea and we can have a chat!