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The idea of organising a parade of floats to celebrate Carnival outdoors, all together along the streets, developed from some youths of the well-to-do society in February 1873 in the Café del Casino. Later this original event, which took place on the Sunday and Shrove Tuesday of February 1873, ripened in the Carnival of Viareggio, as it is known today; one of the most beautiful and magnificent spectacular events of the world. The processions were introduced towards the end of the century and were immediately warmly welcomed by the people. The triumphal floats, which were actually real monuments built in wood, scagliola and jute, were modelled by sculptor and put together by the same carpenters and blacksmiths who worked in the shipyards of the town and built ship able to successfully withstand the insidious waters and unpredictable winds of the oceans. From then on, these floats, which are built very much the same way, have sailed among throngs of astonished and amused people.

The First World War almost destroyed the tradition of the Carnival in Viareggio like the belle époque itself. The Carnival, however, flourished again with more splendour and grandiosity in 1921, when the masked floats paraded along the two splendid avenues, which run parallel along the beach. The avenues along the seashore, known as the mall, which gathered nationally and internationally famous people in the summer, became from then on - also thanks to the beautiful setting of the Apuan Alps in the background - the natural, stunning and incomparably beautiful stage where the Carnival floats have paraded year after year with renewed liveliness and mirth. 1921 was also the year in which the first official song - "La Coppa di Champagne" (The Champaign glass) - was inaugurated. Today this is still is the hymn of the Carnival. For the first time even the masks danced to the music and the band sat on a cart called "Tonin di Burio" that represented a wedding being celebrated in the barnyard of a country house. Two years later "Pierrot", the most nostalgic and romantic of all carnival masks, was the first figure to move its head and eyes. Thanks to the initiative of some manufacturers, papier-mâché was introduced in 1925.

This material, which was immediately used for the floats, enabled to create huge yet extremely light constructions, which hovered on the floats challenging the law of gravity. This innovation helped to transform the Carnival of Viareggio into a legend. Because of their creative abilities, manufacturers were soon named the papier-mâché wizards by both the national and international press. In 1930, the painter Uberto Bonetti who illustrated the Carnival on the official programs, created Burlamacco - now a famous mask - that is portrayed on the 1931 program together with Ondina, standing against the piers. Today Burlamacco is displayed among the Italian masks at the Museo del Folklore e della Tradizione (Museum of Folklore and Populalar Traditions) in Rome and is exhibited at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. After the Second World War, the Carnival of Viareggio recovered its full splendour in 1946. From this date onwards, King Carnival has sat on his throne undisturbed, unharmed by the terrible fire that destroyed the hangars where the floats were built in June 1960.

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