Carnival is the Italian celebration of fancy dressing, fun and tricks, following the famous saying “A carnevale ogni scherzo vale” (At Carnival, every prank goes). Everybody, young and old alike, decides to wear a costume and hide their face behind a mask.

Although it is frequent, nowadays, to dress up as modern celebrities and politicians, Italian culture is famously rich in historical masks that have become real characters reflecting popular and cultural traditions. Pulcinella is probably the most famous of them all.

Pulcinella is the traditional mask of Carnival of Naples.Pulcinella is a lazy and sneaky servant, who walks in an awkward way, gesticulates excessively and tends to show his happiness by outlandishly dancing, hopping and shouting. He likes living life day by day, exploiting every situation, often pretending to be poor, or rich or a thief, depending on what his aims are. He is spontaneous, simple, friendly, funny, talkative, adventurous, melancholic, feisty and very unreliable.