Revellers! Don your masks for Venice carnival

Venice, Feb 10: The founders of Venice 1,500 years ago built their city on water to escape the hordes of Attila the Hun.

Could they ever have imagined that one day their descendants would welcome even greater yearly invasions? The city expects to attract 1.2 million people during the 12 days of carnival which began yesterday, 20 per cent more than last year and vastly outnumbering the 62,000 residents of the city's historical centre.

''The Venice carnival for centuries has been the European event of the year,'' Venice mayor Massimo Cacciari said. ''Rulers from around the world, like the King of Prussia, would come, masked and incognito, to revel here.'' They came to a city known for its licentiousness, where Venetians donned masks to party, flirt, meet their lovers and gamble without being recognized by their creditors.

The most common mask was the ''bauta'' -- a white, hook-nosed mask worn under a black cape and held in place with a tricorn hat. Covering the whole body, it gives complete anonymity, hiding the wearer's face, social status and even sex.

And it's practical too, because it allows you to drink and eat -- and kiss, as Casanova, Venice's most famous playboy, would add.

La Serenissima, as the Republic of Venice was known, tried to limit the use of masks with rigid laws including one in 1458 banning men from entering nunneries dressed up like women to commit ''dishonest'' acts.

The penalties for breaking mask laws were severe. Prostitutes caught wearing masks were whipped from the Rialto bridge to Saint Mark's square, while men could be sentenced to row in irons for 18 months on one of the galleys with which Venice dominated trade in the Mediterranean.

12 DAYS, 1,400 ARTISTS

For twelve days this month Venice will be a city-wide theatre with performances by more than 1,400 artists in 30 musical bands and 25 theatre groups. Saint Mark's square will also host the battle of the bands, in which Latin-American marching bands will meet Scottish bagpipe players.

The city's most famous piazza will also be the best place to see costumed individuals and couples strolling to show off their matching original creations or traditional Venetian masks.

Yesterday's ceremonies began with a mask procession in Saint Mark's square accompanied by musicians, jugglers and men walking on stilts.

''This procession takes us back to the old times of Venice,'' city resident Rosalba said.

The figure of Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni will be ubiquitous this year as the city celebrates the 300th anniversary of his birth.

A prolific dramatist, Goldoni moved to Paris and wrote comedies in French, including Le Bourru bienfaisant, which was produced for the wedding of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in 1771.

Goldoni retired to Versailles on a royal pension, which he lost during the French Revolution. His two royal benefactors lost their heads.

This carnival an actor impersonating Goldoni will introduce events, theatre groups will stage his plays and the city's Goldoni Theatre will produce one of his most famous comedies, Sior Todero Brontolon, on February 15 and 16.

At a series of dinners at Ca Gambara, a privately owned palace on the Grand Canal, a fortunate few will pay 250 euros a head for a taste of the sumptuous private parties that are the highlight of carnival.

Diners will feast on a menu drawn from recipes mentioned by Goldoni in his works while actors recreate the atmosphere of the dramatist's times with sketches from his plays.

The carnival's grand-finale will be a fireworks show on the night of February 20.

Reuters