The New York Times-20080127-Datebook

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Datebook

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VENICE

If you are visiting Venice now through Feb. 5, you will most likely come across pedestrians in full 18th-century garb, or at least wearing fanciful masks. Chances are they're on their way to a Carnival party, event or ball. Interested in taking part? If you're staying at the Hilton Molino Stucky, on Giudecca Island, across from St. Mark's Square, you're in luck. The hotel has hired Catherine Dian Buyse, a period costumer who has designed for well-known films like Casanova, to help its guests identify and create their Carnival characters, most of them based on 18th-century aristocrats, and more important, to customize their costumes. Once guests have decided on their characters, the hotel will register them under their real names and their Carnival names. The carnival consultant fee starts at 300 euros, $456, at $1.52 to the euro; nightly room rates at the Molino Stucky start at 199 euros.

PARIS AND NEW YORK

The ancient city of Babylon in present-day, war-torn Iraq is not the safest place to visit these days.

Curious minds, however, may learn about it in two different exhibitions this year. From March 14 to June 2, the Louvre in Paris (www.louvre.fr) will present Babylon, which explores the history of the ancient city, below, through stelae, statues, documents and cuneiform tablets. The exhibition also includes Babylon-inspired works of art. In the fall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) will present Beyond Babylon: Art and International Exchange in the Second Millennium B.C. Approximately 400 objects -- most of them diplomatic gifts or traded goods -- from Mesopotamia and Egypt will be on view.

ASPEN

The winter miniversion of summer's annual Aspen Music Festival will take place in February and March at Harris Concert Hall. On Feb. 12, the cellist David Finckel and the pianist Wu Han will perform; other February performances include the pianists Piotr Anderszewski (Feb. 20) and Emanuel Ax (Feb. 26). On March 6, the pianist Stephen Hough will play, and on March 10, the violinist Leila Josefowicz will end the season. Individual tickets start at $55 (www.aspenmusicfestival.com).

[Illustration]PHOTOS (PHOTOGRAPH BY MUSEUM BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN)