Carnevale has been keeping us company for a few weeks already and the country will celebrate its end with a bang on Shrove Tuesday. Very little people do not know about this famous Italian recurrence, exported all over the world. So much Carnevale is loved outside of Italy, that some of its foreign incarnations – read Rio, New Orleans or Notting Hill, in London – have become as famous as the original.

But the Italian Carnevale remains king. Ever the chameleon, it changes dress, face and attitude in each and every town celebrating it: it should come as no surprise it may still have some secrets to reveal. Did you know that…