Oooooooooo, exciting! Venice is amazing, I went there on an art trip this Easter and it's the perfect place to set a story, to set anything in fact. It would be amzing to spend a length of time there, do some wirting, painting, people watch. I'm thinking of taking a gap year and spending alonger amount of time there...
But anyway I'll get to the point... I'm not sure how much you know, I don't even now that much, but it would be amazing to research...
The masks themselves are used traditionally in the Festival, and still are (it's eithur Febraury or November, but should be easy to find out) but now they're more of a tourist attraction because they're so firmly embedded in the culture. They're sold in so many places, in so many forms, colours and styles and range from the simple to over-the-top and elobarate pieces.
So for the culture of the time - that's a big span from old to modern. Do you want to research Venice during the plague, in the rennaissance, just after during the reformations, when the festival was just setting up or in modern times when there's so much contrast... The choose is yours.
As for research, just use the internet, google the festival - how and why it started. Find out the story of a prominant family (the Medici's), find a character who actually lived and is referenced in Venice at the time, google festivals that stood out, read orignal sources of people writing about it. Research teh islands, the glass, the streets, St Mark's Square and teh cathedral, the bridge of sighs... There's so much to choose from and the topics reaslly broad so you can go anywhere.
All the infomation should be really easy to find. And then there's films I suggest you watch seeing as you probably won't be able to go to Venice... Don't Look Now, Death in Venice, The Merchant of Venice, anything to do with Casanova, Chasing Liberty, Just Married, Casino Royale...
Just try an get a sence of teh culture and atmosphere - that's the main thing about Venice
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