Everybody knows about Venice’s famed Carnevale. Is it masks, the costumes, or the lavish parties? This festival is no surprise to Italians.
It begins with a smiling woman jumping off the bell tower in Piazza San Marco with nothing between her and the ground but a harness strapped onto her dress. A staple feature to the Carnevale festivities each year is the iconic Volo dell’Angelo, and it is exactly that: a flying angel.
Each year, a different woman is selected to be the “angel”, who has the honor of dressing up in a lavish, beautiful costume, being strapped onto a harness, and then flying down across the Piazza San Marco over the heads of thousands of onlooking people.
According to legend, the Carnival of Venice started following the military victory of the Venetian Republic over the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ulrico di Treven in the year 1162. In the honor of this victory, the people danced and gather in San Marco Square. Apparently, this festival started in that period and became an official in the Renaissance.
In the seventeenth century, the baroque carnival was a way to save the prestigious image of Venice in the world. It was very famous during the eighteenth century. It encouraged license and pleasure, but it was also used to protect Venetians from present and future anguish.
However, under the rule of the Holy Roman Emperor and later Emperor of Austria, Francis II, the festival was outlawed entirely in 1797 and the use of masks became strictly forbidden. It reappeared gradually in the nineteenth century, but only for short periods and above all for private feasts, where it became an occasion for artistic creations.
The Volo dallyingly (Angel Flight) is a high-speed zip line crossing the valley between Castelmezzano and neighboring Pietrapertosa, offering a suggestive view at over 400 meters (1,300 feet) from the ground at speeds of 120 km/h (70 mph). Inaugurated in 2007, the event is held annually between May and November.
The event dates back to the 1500s when acrobats used to perform the flight without, well, much protection. Unsurprisingly, this led to tragedy in 1759, when an acrobat didn’t so much fly, but… well, Buzz Lightyeared. For a while afterward, il Volo dallyingly was prohibited during Carnevale.
But, fortunately for us lovers of the bizarre and fun, it came back in the form of its current incarnation. You can experience this emotion alone with a single flight, or share it with another person by choosing the flight in pairs.
On the Lucanian Dolomites, in the heart of Basilicata, it is possible to experience a unique emotion, the flight between the peaks of two countries, Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa connected through a steel cable: it is the Flight of the Angel.
