Sure, everybody knows about Carnival in Venice, but did you know that Italy is teeming with spectacular 'carnevale' celebrations all around the regions? We’ve included some of our favorites below, but if you can’t just hop on a plane to Italy, scroll down further to see how to bring Carnival to your own home with some authentic regional dessert recipes that spring up this time of year. We have also added this article as a free download from this page for your blog or similar..

#1 Italy’s most famous Carnival, Venice comes in at n.1.

Turn yourself into a living piece of art for the annual festivities. Buy a mask, put on a long cloak, and wander through the mists of the lagoon. Accommodations and events book up quickly, however, so be sure to prepare ahead of time, especially if you plan on attending one of the many gala dinners, masquerade balls, theater performances, or concerts going on.

The Vatican archives, more than 1,000 year old, will go on show in a special exhibition in Rome's Capitoline Museums from February to September this year to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the establishment.

Conclaves, heresies, popes and emperors. Crusades, excommunications, ciphered letters. Manuscripts, codices, ancient parchments, strings, deeds and registers. A unique and once-in-a-lifetime event recounting history through its sources as it will be the first and possibly the only time in history allowed out of the Vatican vaults: 100 original documents, preserved for 400 years in the Popes' Archive, 85 linear kilometers of shelving; records of an extraordinary historical value, covering a time-span that stretches from the 8th to the 20th century.

The title, Lux in Arcana, communicates the main scope of the exhibition: the light that filters through the nooks and crannies of the Archive (lux in arcana) illuminates a reality that is sealed off from a superficial knowledge, but understandable only through actual and direct contact with the Archive's sources, that opens the doors to the discovery of the sometimes unrevealed history narrated by the documents.

Now we like the low cost airlines. And will not have a bad word said against them. What we like less is the getting out to the regional airports from the center of town in the early hours of the morning.

So what are the options? Ask a family member to give you a lift. Pay for a taxi. Take a low cost bus ride.

From Rome, a number of companies do the bus trip, and competition is forcing the prices down. Almost by 50% in the last few years.

So who do you go with?

From Ciampino Airport to Rome Termini, dont look further than Sit Bus Shuttle (pictured). Its always there waiting for passengers coming out of arrivals, Its always next to empty, and you can pay in cash for your seat. No queues, no problems.

Ever wonder, amid all the festivities, exactly why you’re celebrating Carnival? The word carnival actually derives from the Latin term Carnevale, meaning “farewell to meat”. Simply put, Carnival has come to represent a sort of ‘last hurrah’ before a long period of self-denial.

Although the holiday most likely began in pre-Christian times with the ancient Roman traditions of Saturnalia and Bacchanalia, Carnival is currently known as the days preceding the Christian period of Lent, consisting of forty days of fasting during which the consumption of animal products was strictly forbidden.

As a result, universal feasts were held in order not to waste any perishable foods and drink that were about to be banned, releasing an euphoric atmosphere of giddy over-indulgence before the sober austerity that was about to descend.