In February 2020, a photograph from Carnival in Venice went worldwide. The shot raised special interest in New Orleans.
It was a sad scene:
A lone masker wearing a classic Venetian mask along with a cloak and a tri-corner hat stood alone on a square where on that day thousands of other maskers should have been. Two days earlier the rest of Carnival in Venice had been cancelled because of a rapidly spreading virus. It would spread throughout Europe but Italy was its biggest victim.
I felt sorry for the lone masker, as well as all those who were absent in deference to the government’s newly issued quarantine order. With an ocean to separate the continents I thought that this virus could not reach the United States, and of course our Mardi Gras would never be affected.
That picture would reverberate in my mind as Carnival 2021 approached and the word was already out. The New Orleans parades would be cancelled because of the virus, by then known as COVID-19. Limited gatherings were allowed and there were waves of creativity as folks decorated their porches. Nevertheless, without parades, Carnival had lost its stellar attractions. It would not be the same.
There is a kinship between New Orleans and Venice. Both are fun, funky, historic and creative.
Venice is known for its canals; New Orleans has Canal Street, a thoroughfare constructed along a path for which a canal was once planned but never built. That street is part of the route for all the major parades as they roll through the business district. Surely, in the absence of parades in 2021, some lonely masked character walked along Canal Street on Mardi Gras as the Venice masker had done a year before, sharing the same pain.
For both cites, there is no perceived natural threat for the upcoming Carnival. Each took a big hit in tourism during the beginning COVID years. For Italy, one of the world’s most desired travel destinations, the good news is that the visitors are back. The bad news is that there are almost too many. Some might be the travelers who cancelled their earlier planned Italian trips and who are now catching up. Even tour guides complain about tourist overcrowding.
Many of Venice’s visitors arrive by cruise ships. That’s good business, but in a region surrounded by water it is also business to be concerned about. There has been criticism that the ships are creating environmental issues in the delicate lagoon system. Formerly the ships docked at a terminal which was only a short ride to town on the vaporetto, a water taxi. Now many of the bigger ships have to dock further away. Hypothetically, the situation would be akin to ships that once docked in New Orleans near Poydras Avenue end having to dock in Chalmette instead. In Venice, the heart of the town is still charming but a little harder and longer to get to.
Still, great cities are worth the trip. And where there are problems there can still be fantasy, especially where there is the spirit of a masquerade.
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BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: Errol’s Laborde’s books, “New Orleans: The First 300 Years” and “Mardi Gras: Chronicles of the New Orleans Carnival” (Pelican Publishing Company, 2017 and 2013), are available at local bookstores and at book websites.
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