Carnival in Venice

VENICE, Italy (AFP) - The streets of Venice filled with revellers who came from the four corners of the world for a taste of 18-century magic during the city's annual Carnival. Wrapped in dark robes and golden masks, cameras in hand, tourists and others braved the biting cold to converge on Saint Mark's square, the beating heart of the Carnival, where the first parades of the year were held late on Saturday.

The water-lapped city each year plunges back in time for the two-week festival, which was set to start officially Sunday at midday and to run until Mardi Gras on February 8. On the central Saint Mark's square, "Commedia dell'Arte" characters, Casanovas and courtesans, twirled gallantly before the cameras, as onlookers marveled at their powdered wigs and grotesque, beautiful masks.