She had never met someone like me

The history and symbolism shared by Venice and Venetian masks are tightly connected and very long. It is an interesting result of social barriers and the natural instinct to be together as a community. While Venetian masks are mostly attributed to the carnival, it is the spider on a very large web of different events and was used for many reasons.

Being a weekend, Venice was very crowded. We had taken a tour guide to show us around this beautiful, mystical, and historical city. The tour guide was a Ukrainian woman who spoke both Ukrainian and Russian and she had left Ukraine for Italy many many years ago. When initiating our tour she looked at the one brown guy and asked in English if I was part of the tour. I confirmed and she mentioned the tour wasn't in English. I only said "ok" in English, another lady in our group said I'd understand Ukrainian and speak Russian and we kicked off. And that made for a funny experience, I'll tell you why in a bit...

Part of the tour was this Venetian mask shop. Much like most of the shops on the thin aisles of Venice, it looked rather small from the outside. The tiny door along with a crowded window of a building so old it almost looked like it could blown away if someone leaned on it. It is a picturesque spot with canals on the outside, a footbridge on the farther side going over the canal and a walkway on the other side between two buildings that is just enough for a single person to pass through at a time.

The guide mentioned this being one of the last remaining authentic Venetian shops in Venice. Even though the carnival season attracts a lot of visitors to the city, the demand for authentic Venetian masks has dwindled significantly. The city has to raise prices to keep up with demand and it is harder for local businesses to keep up with those prices. A lot of artisans try to modernise their mask designs but it can go only so far before it is not Venetian anymore. The last and decisive nail is the influx of affordable and easily produced masks that come out of factories like in China, which Venetian artisans might never be able to compete with.

Venetian masks were mostly used for the carnivals. There were also quite a few rules to abide by. Call it some sort of law for the lawless. In the shop, there is a whole section dedicated to the types of masks popular at the carnival.

Bauta Teya, Mattacino, Colombiana, Jester mask, Jolly mask, and the Columbiana with a stick are just a small assortment of a large collection of styles that served a different purpose and were used differently.

Sometimes masks were used to protect identities during business or meetings, sometimes a specific style of mask was used by thieves and con artists during the carnival to gain a certain advantage, and as time passed, not only did different masks become indigenous to a specific group, but they also start merging with other styles to create new ones.

The Plague Doctor mask started off as a functional mask. In the city where masks were already a thing, doctors stuffed their beaks with herbs and whatnot which they thought would protect them from the plague. It would soon be not associated with life saving doctors, but with death.

The Jester would become synonymous with elites "off the hinge", for at least some time. It was an opportunity for the nobles to get crazy and have fun beyond the limits of their own name and status.

The single woman mask was fascinating. Mostly for its design but also because the majority of our tour group were Ukrainian women. The mask covers the entire face but has no strings or handles. It was usually plain with decorative accents. It was held by a button on the inside that the woman would have to bite on to hold it in place. The intention behind it was that an ideal woman would be silent.

Casanova was a prominent figure in Venice not only with the higher circles but also with the women. He was famous for wearing the Bauta Teya mask and often in the carnivals the news would spread like fire among the women if the mask was spotted. The guide decided to use me as a practical example. "There you go ladies, meet Casanova" she said pointing at me. I was dressed in all sorts of masks and hats. It became very apparent that I could wear a mask attributed to someone else and it would be next to impossible to know if I was the real deal.

The tour would go around the city and it'd be impossible to fit it all in one go. The funny experience I mentioned earlier happened at the end of the tour. After saying goodbye and a group picture, the guide wanted a separate picture. She said she had never met a foreigner who had settled in Ukraine let alone who spoke the language. It was her first experience giving a tour to such a person. She had moved to Italy many years ago, more than a decade ago. Ukraine has become increasingly diverse in the recent past, mostly towards the last decade. Since more Ukrainians went to other countries and more people also came to Ukraine. So it felt a little weird but also made a lot of sense that she hadn't experienced this before. I hope I get to see her again. But if and when you do visit Venice, a guided tour might be a very good option since there are parts of history like the mask shop that you'd miss without.

---

_{Follow me on twitter}

---

Affiliate links

_{Rising Star
Exode
Huobi
Appics
Splinterlands
Actifit
Binance
Ionomy
Cryptex}