Many of the Venetian masks on sale today are derived from the Carnevale of old: the ones representing characters from the Commedia dell'Arte (Pierrot, Harlequin, Columbine) for example, and the classic white half-mask called a volto , with a kind of beak over the mouth so the wearer could eat and drink.

Although masks are worn only during the ten days of Carnevale, they are on sale all year round; most designs are conveyor-belt stuff, which you'll soon recognize - for genuinely crafted examples, go to one of the following.

Bottega dei Mascareri: Calle del Cristo 2919 (San Polo). Run for many years by the brothers Sergio and Massimo Boldrin, the Bottega dei Mascareri sells some wonderfully inventive masks, such as faces taken from Tiepolo paintings or Donald Sutherland in Fellini's Casanova .

Ca' Macana: Calle delle Botteghe 3172 (Dorsoduro). Huge mask shop, with perhaps the biggest stock in the city; has another branch on the other side of Campo San Barnaba, at Barbaria delle Tole 1169.

MondoNovo: Rio Terr� Canal 3063, Dorsoduro. This workshop, located just off Campo S. Margherita, is perhaps the most imaginative in the city, producing everything from ancient Greek tragic masks to portraits of Richard Wagner.

Tragicomica: Calle dei Nomboli 2800, San Polo. A good range and some nice eighteenth-century styles, as you might expect from a shop that's opposite Goldoni's house.

Back to Shopping in Venice