The Carnivais an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with Lent, forty days before Easter on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Masks have always been a main feature of the Venetian carnival. The first documented sources mentioning the use of masks in Venice can be found as far back as the 13th century. Venetian masks can be made in leather, porcelain or with the original glass technique. The original masks were rather simple in design, decoration, and often had a symbolic and practical function. Today most of them are made with the application of gesso and gold leaf and are all hand-painted using natural feathers and gems to decorate.

E-mail: info@veneziamarketingeventi.it

Masks at the Carnival of Venice
Photograph: Frank Kovalchek

The Roma Jazz Festival is a jazz event in the city of Rome, Italy. The Festival is organized by the International Music Festival Foundation (IMF). Roma Jazz Festival, one of the most important events on the international scene, chooses every year a different theme and features big events to bring prestige to the whole festival. Over the years, through the selection of new artist and musicians, the festival has focused on and voiced two central themes: The Great Jazz Cultural Expression of the 900’s and Jazz as Ecumenical Music so that, by way of the common language of music, the festival has united humankind around the world. The Roma Jazz Festival has presented its listeners more than 900 concerts during its 33 annual celebrations, with a total attendance of one million people. Still today, the artist involved in this festival are among the most revered Italian and International interpreters of this music genre: Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Gerry Mulligan, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Norah Jones and many more.

Address: MF Foundation, Via Giuseppe Sacconi 19 / G
Tel: +39 06 9020 7045
E-mail: romajazzfestival@gmail.com

Verona Arena Festival is a summer festival of opera, located in the city of Verona Italy. Opera performances are given in Arena di Verona, an ancient Roman amphitheatre, which was capable of holding 30,000 spectators. Performances traditionally begin at dusk and spectactors on the stone seats of the arena bring small candles (the "mocoleto") which are lit as darkness falls and the performances begin. Many singers made their names and careers by performing at Verona. In 1929 Beniamino Gigli thrilled audiences with his appearances in Flotow's Martha. Between 1947 and 1954 Maria Callas was a regular after creating a sensation in Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Dance and classic concert performances have also been given in the Arena. Classical ballets and traditional dances from all over the world have been seen.

Tel: +39 0458005151

Verona Arena Festival

Heineken Jammin' Festival is a large live rock festival in Venice, Italy featuring international and Italian rock acts. It started in mid-June 1998 at the Imola Autodrome and has attracted attendances of more than 100,000 over the course of the three day event. Some of the featured acts have included Vasco Rossi, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., Robbie Williams, 30 Seconds to Mars, Lacuna Coil, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Garbage, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Marilyn Manson, Santana, Pixies, Lenny Kravitz, The Cure, and Chemical Brothers.

The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. The festival takes place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice, Italy. In 2012 the 69th festival took place from 29 August to 8 September. The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance. The Festival includes retrospectives and homages to major figures as a contribution towards raising awareness of the history of cinema. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi and in other venues nearby. It is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is part of the Venice Biennale. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi and in other venues nearby. It is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is part of the Venice Biennale.

E-mail: cinema@labiennale.org

The red carpet outside the Palazzo del Cinema at the Venice Film Festival

Asti's Festival of Festivals is a great food and wine national event that takes place in Asti on the second Sunday of September. The festival holds a colorful procession that winds through the streets of the city, with more than three thousand characters with authentic period costumes, tractors and farming tools, which represent the values and traditions of the rural tradition of the province. The parade is the fixed date each year for those who want to enjoy the taste of the simple things of the past, the characters that keep the campaign alive in the history of the customs that have their roots in these hills. The show is undoubtedly the most spectacular and exciting festival, which anticipates the great gastronomic festival which will run from noon until evening. There are more than 3000 characters with authentic clothing of the early decades of the '900, tools and work tools, furnishings, furniture and fixtures of all kinds, hot-headed old tractors and agricultural machines that have marked the history of campaigns, 250 wagons pulled by tractors and old home zoo with a diverse oxen, horses, mules, donkeys and other animals that are taken for a day to parade through the streets of the city.

Address: Camera di Commercio Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Asti, Piazza Medici, 8 - 14100 Asti (AT)
Tel: 0141-535211

The Carnival of Viareggio is a carnival event yearly held in the Tuscan city of Viareggio, in Italy. It is considered amongst the most renowned carnival celebrations in both Italy and Europe. Its main characteristic is given by the parade of floats and masks, usually made of paper-pulp, depicting caricatures of popular people, such as politicians, showmen and sportsmen; the parade is held on the Viareggio avenue located alongside the local beach. These floats are true works of art to which the local float makers dedicate an entire year of workmanship. On every float young people and children find a place from which to throw confetti and shooting stars to the crowd. During the entire period masked balls and parties in the various "rioni" (quarters, districts) are organized as well as numerous sports and cultural events.

Carnival of Viareggio