Amidst floats, parades, masks, and pranks, with unique customs that vary from city to city, from town to town, Carnival in Friuli Venezia Giulia is a serious affair. Less known, however, is that confetti was invented right here: specifically in Trieste.

While one version of the story credits the Milanese engineer Enrico Mangili with the idea of commercializing these bits of colored paper, now unmistakably associated with this festival, legend traces this fortunate invention back to Ettore Fenderl, a native of Trieste known as a scientist, inventor, and philanthropist.

Well before becoming famous as a co-founder of the first laboratory for radioactive research in Rome, in 1876, Fenderl, a then 14-year-old teenager, decided to cut up paper to throw during the Carnival parade passing by his house in Piazza della Borsa in Trieste, as he lacked the money to buy either rose petals or other decorations, which were popular at the time.

It appears that he was immediately imitated by many of those present, and since then, confetti has been the unmistakable symbol of Carnival celebrations in Italy and beyond.