Avete la maschera?

Do you have your mask?

Today is Martedi Grasso (Fat Tuesday) and the perfect opportunity for you to assume another persona hidden behind the masks of Carnevale. Which would you choose? 

The crafty hunchback Pulcinella with baggy white trousers and long nose that resembles a beak.  Pantalone in his red tights and Turkish slippers, an indulgent vain-glorious old man with bushy eyebrows that peer at pretty women. Il Dottore, a pompous scholar from Bologna, a doctor of medicine or law or anything else he claims to know about, which is most things. Or Capitano Scaramouche a dashing,boasting, swashbuckling military officer, dressed in a cape, feathered hat and high boots telling extraordinary tales about how he single handedly beat a whole army of infidels.

I would be Colombina ( “little dove” in Italian) the lady servant.  Somewhat lustier and more buxom than I, she is described as  having a keen and active wit with a “functional intellect”, ever ready to help lovers. Not quit I but after all it is Carnevale.