Comedie del'Arte

There are masks everywhere in Venice. As you walk down any street, whether it's a cobbled alley or a wide tourist thoroughfare, there are masks hanging from windows everywhere you look. Most of them look cheap and tacky, as if you would only be suited to buying them if you were an aging thesp with false eyelashes and scarlet lippie, living in a hot incense-filled room with a grand piano and lots of velvet... or an overweight middle-aged Texan couple in hiking boots and 'fanny packs' going "oh honey, isn't that B-eeeewdiful"...
Anyway... that isn't to detract from the true artistry and wonder of the real Carnevale masks. They are amazing, captivating, and intricately both bizarre and beautiful, depending on whether you want just drunken hedonism by the canal or true S&M inspiration a la Eyes Wide Shut. I might add that all photos here are of the real good quality individually designed masks of Ca' del Sol.

One night, weaving through back streets after a particularly nice meal and rather over-effusive waiter (who seemed embarrassingly to get increasingly obsessed with my auburn hair and pale skin over the course of the meal and loudly crowned me Miss Italia... seemingly ignoring the fact that there were 4 other STUNNING girls at the table. I realise that sounds horribly self-pitying but I'm being serious. I scrub up ok, but I don't think I was in the same league as some of them. I didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted at the pity vote)... anyway I digress... we were wandering home and stumbled upon the only shop still open at 11pm. A little man in his mask shop, making them all himself. He was the real artist. There were masks of every shape and size covering every inch of that place. We spent almost an hour in there trying them all on and chatting to him. He got very excited when we told him about the filming in the Pieta and said that if we put his name in the programme he will lend us masks for free if we want them for furutre concerts, so Ruth and I are now talking about the possibility of doing a more theatrical performance of Venetian repertoire in concert complete with dramatic Carnevale masks for our Big Entrance... capes and candlelight.

Anyway, the man who ran the shop was lovely, the place was incredible. And anyone who ever feels the tempation to purchase a mask from that city should ONLY consider them from the lovely little man with the beret and moustache who works late into the night sewing ribbons onto masks and loves Vivaldi...Ca' del Sol, near San Zaccaria in the Castello district. www.cadelsolmaschere.com