Attend the Venice Carnival

The world's oldest film festival — red carpets on the Lido and the Golden Lion every late summer

A city built on water with no cars — gondolas, Byzantine mosaics, and getting happily lost in the back canals

Glide the back canals by gondola — touristy, yes, but silent, ancient and unrepeatable anywhere else

Ferry to the Venetian lagoon’s rainbow island of fishermen’s houses and handmade lace

Join the world's biggest carnival celebration in Rio de Janeiro

The Caribbean's biggest carnival.

Second only to Rio: weeks of sequinned parades, the election of the Carnival Queen and street parties that run until dawn.

Pale limestone towers that turn rose-pink at sunset — Italy’s most spectacular mountains