A couple of kilometres from the seafront is 'Carnival City' aka 16 gargantuan hangars which serve as workshops and garage space for the fantastic floats, crafted with a passion by each highly skilled and prized carrista (float-builder) for Viareggio's annual carnival. Carnevale history and the art of making teste in capo (the giant heads worn in processions) and mascheroni a piedi (big walking masks) is explained in the on-site Museo del Carnevale (Carnival Museum). Ask about its hands-on paper-mâché workshops.
The largest floats featuring a papier-mâché merry-go-round of clowns, opera divas, skeletons, kings etc are a staggering 20m wide and 14m tall. They take five months to build and carry 200 people each during processions. Stroll around the complex and a carrista will inevitably invite you into his workshop.
