Hotels near Ca' Macana

Ca' Macana has been making masks in Dorsoduro since 1984, in papier-mâché pressed over clay moulds and painted by hand on the premises. The shapes are the historic ones. The bauta covers the face with a jutting chin that lets the wearer eat and drink without lifting it. The moretta is the small black velvet oval that women held on by biting an internal button, which meant they could not talk while masked. The medico della peste with its long beak descends from the seventeenth-century physician Charles de Lorme.

The Carnival argument for a working atelier over a bridge stall is practical rather than romantic. From late January the bridges around Rialto and the length of the Strada Nova fill with racks of injection-moulded masks that warp within a day and cut into the bridge of the nose after two hours. A hand-finished papier-mâché mask holds its shape, sits on the face properly and can be worn across three days. Browsing costs nothing, and the shop keeps its winter hours of 10:00 to 18:30 daily, holidays included.

Two honest caveats. Ca' Macana also runs mask-painting sessions in its studio but does not publish a rate online, so you have to email or telephone for the price, and during Carnival week those sessions fill early. And if you want something made to your own face rather than picked off the wall, that is a matter of weeks, not an afternoon. Turning up on 8 February wanting a bespoke mask for the next morning will get you a polite no.

Pro Tip: Arrive before 11:00 on a weekday; from about 15:00 the Dorsoduro mask shops fill with people who need something for that evening. If you want a mask fitted or made to order, email the workshop at least three weeks before Martedì Grasso on 9 February 2027 and ask for the price in writing.