VENICE, Italy - Masked merrymakers are cavorting in Venice, the home of Italy's most popular pre-Lenten Carnival festivities.
Venetian souvenir shops are crammed year-round with colourful, delicate masks, but "Carnevale" is the time to put them on.
Thousands of tourists wearing masks and costumes thronged Venice's car-free streets on Saturday as the city's celebration of Carnival began.
Other Italian cities celebrate, too, with Rome embracing the centuries-old tradition with gusto recently.
In towns large and small, kids in costumes sometimes costing hundreds of euros walk around their neighbourhoods, scattering coloured paper confetti and nibbling on sugar-dusted pastries.
People indulge in sweets because some Catholics swear off sugar in a sign of penance when Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (February 17th this year).
- AP
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