Well, I can tell you that, over the last few years, many schools have started banning Carnival parties and giving their students a short break around Mardi Gras, partly to give everybody a chance to celebrate and party and partly, in my opinion, because principals are worried about the way their school is going to be messed up!

Carnival in Italy is not only about delicious sweets, costumes, confetti and streamers… it’s also about spray foam, stink-bombs and stupid tricks. We have a saying: “A carnevale, ogni scherzo vale“, meaning “at carnival, all tricks are good”, so we are used to putting up with stupid stuff at this time of the year. But still…

Walking in any high-street these days means having  to avoid teenagers running around trying to spray each other with foam… The other day, I went to the park with my dog and there were two groups of kids fighting with firecrackers and throwing fake blood at each other. I had to avoid a couple of coarse screaming girls trying to escape what I suppose was some type of rough flirtation consisting in a guy trying to clean a girl’s hair and jacket, which were covered in egg and flour…

These are the downsides of carnival… but then, walking home, I stopped at my favourite pastry shop in Pisa and the taste of the “frittelle di carnevale” made me forget all about the foam, the stink-bombs and the firecrackers! Those are definitely the positive sides of carnival!