'Carnival in the Dark' and 'Sensation Show' top bill - A feast of the senses awaits visitors to Venice's glittering carnival celebrations this year. Each of the Lagoon City's neighbourhoods, or sestieri, will explore one of the five senses: San Polo will focus on sight, Cannaregio on taste, Santa Croce on smell, Dorsoduro on touch and Castello on sound. St Mark's Square ''will celebrate the sixth sense,'' organisers say, with a rave-like 'Sensation Show' on the nights of February 1 and 2.
Carnival officially opens at midday on January 27 with the Flight of the Dove, when a white-clad woman is lowered to the ground from the 90m-high St Mark's belltower.
But the religious Procession of the Marias the previous day, running from Castello to St Mark's Square, offers visitors a foretaste of the festivities. A variety of events are then scheduled in the days leading up to Shrove Tuesday on February 5. Among the highlights is 'Carnival in the Dark' on January 29. The initiative in a converted warehouse will take place in absolute darkness, and is intended to heighten other senses by ''removing'' sight.
As well as the Sensation Show, St Mark's will stage the awards ceremony for the best masks on the afternoon of February 3. Venice will also host its traditional series of costume pageants, balls and performances that revive the spirit of the Venetian Republic.
This year, city authorities have announced they are doing away with much of their traditional advertising techniques, switching the focus from paper flyers and handouts to digital communications. A constant stream of information and updates will be available anywhere in the city for those with a wi-fi-connected laptop, cell phone or BlackBerry.
The Venice carnival, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Lagoon City every year, takes place in the week before Lent and is believed to date back to the 12th century.
The festival was brought to a halt in 1797 when Napoleon put an end to the Venetian Republic.
After taking a break for almost 200 years, it revived itself with the help of some local enthusiasts in the 1970s.
It is now a big hit with Venetians and tourists alike. City officials say that, at its peak, it attracts around 80,000 visitors a day.
Its most distinctive feature is the famous Venetian white mask - worn with a black cloak and a tricorn hat - which can be bought almost everywhere in the city during the festival.
Masks are linked to the carnival because during the era of the Republic it was one of the few periods of the year that authorities allowed citizens to wear them. Venetians liked them because they enabled people of different social classes to mingle and get up to mischief together without being recognised.
