SunTrip

VENICE, Italy – Masked merrymakers are cavorting in Venice to mark the start of Carnival, for the canal-laced city's pre-Lenten festivities are Italy's most popular.

Venetian souvenir shops are crammed year-round with colorful, delicate masks, but "Carnevale" is the time to put them on.

Other Italian cities celebrate, too, with Rome embracing the centuries-old tradition with gusto recently. In towns big and small, kids in costumes sometimes costing hundreds of dollars walk around their neighborhoods, scattering colored paper confetti and nibbling on sugar-dusted pastries.

People indulge in sweets because some Catholics swear off sugar in a sign of penance when Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.