venetian masquerade

Venice is a maze of canals and narrow streets lined with touristy souvenir shops and sidewalk merchants. Of all the items on sale, I was most fascinated by the beautifully-crafted paper mache masks. Adorned with feathers, Swarovski crystals, Venetian lace, gold leaf, rick rack, or enamel, they were artful and unique – I wanted to buy one and attend a masquerade ball!


Masks are big in Venice for they are part of the annual Carnavale, weeks of costumed pageantry and revelry where identity and inhibition are hidden from view. See a video here.

Before I flew back to Manila, I bought one mask with musical notes right above the eyeholes (see bottom, right). At least, if I get invited to a masquerade party, I won't have to wake up the next morning worrying if I made a fool of myself the night before. I won't care.

To be anonymous is to be free. :-)

(Top) The masked Datmo Bearbrick was released in 2005 by DoCoMo's Datmo Project, designers of custom mobile phone covers in Japan. It is also available in yellow.

Info: www.nationalgeographic.com, Wikipedia / Photos by yours truly