four hours after midnight
Generally , however , in the pleasure-loving cities of Italy , a few hours ' law are allowed or winked at . The revellers are not supposed to become aware that it is past midnight till about three or four in the morning . Very generally the wind-up of the season of fun and frolic consists of what is called a `` Veglione , '' or `` great making a night of it , '' which means a masked ball at the theatre . And the great central chandelier does not begin to descend into the body of the house , to have its lights flapped out by the handkerchiefs of the revellers amid a last frantic rondo , till some four hours after midnight . But in provincial Ravenna , a Pope 's city under the rule of a Cardinal Legate , there is -- or was in the days when the Pope held sway there -- no Veglione . Its place was supplied , as far as `` the society '' of the city was concerned , by a ball at the `` Circolo dei Nobili . '' It was not , therefore , till four o'clock in the morning , or perhaps even a little later , that the lights would be extinguished on the night in question at the `` Circolo dei Nobili , '' and Carnival would , in truth , be over , and the tired holiday-makers would go home to their beds .