Visiting Venice is always an incredible experience for any traveler: there is no other city in the world able to give you such sensations and suggestions as Venice is. The Venetian Carnival, or Carnevale, is Venice's response to the Mardi Gras.
When I went in Venice for the Carnival, unique show of elegance and refinement, the atmosphere I breathed left me astonished: magic and mistery together with history and tradition are the elements that make Venice Carnival a unique in the world event, an appointement to fully live at least once in a lifetime.
The Carnival in Venice goes hand in hand with the mysterious and ancient tradition of an event dedicated to the fun, festivities and pleasure of the people until the official beginning of the Quaresima period. San Marco Square filled with ancient Venetian masks represents the ideal starting point for your carnival day in Venice: a stroll through the channels of the old town in a misty evening is ideal for you to fully enter into the atmosphere that characterizes this fascinating and unique in the world event.
For ten days before Lent each winter, tourists throng the city to join in the merry-making and participate in the equally many pageants, commedia dell'arte, concerts and masked balls... right until Shrove Tuesday where every merry-making activity seems to come to a sudden halt.
Carnevale isn't just exclusively celebrated in Venice. In fact, many such festivities and merry-making occur throughout the Roman Catholic world, including Italy. The term "carnevale" comes from the Latin word for "farewell to meat" and it literally means that. Catholics will traditionally give up eating meats during the fasting weeks leading to Easter.
I will probably go back to Venice, although not for the Carnival: this experience will anyway remain one of the most personal and satisfying of my Italian trip. An advice: if you are planning to visit Venice in the days of the Carnival remember to book a bed (very expensive in Venice, cheaper outside) a lot of time before: in this period Venetian accomodations are usually always next to sold out.