3 - Calle de la Comedia
Calle dei Orbi 3089 - Casanova Family House
Calle dei Orbi 3089, as pictured on Google Maps.
Leaving the Corte De La Muneghe, turn left on to Calle de La Munghe…
Turn left back on to Calle dei Orbi.
You will find no. 3089 on your right, opposite the Corte de la Vidai.
After extensive research in 2003 by the Venetian Casanovist Federico Montecuccoli, it has been suggested that Calle dei Orbi 3089 matches the description given by Casanova of the house rented by his mother, in which he lived between 1728 to 1743, rather than that at Calle Malipiero 3082, around the corner, long presumed to be the family home.
“My mother came back to Venice with her husband toward the end of the year 1728 and, having become an actress, she continued in that career”
On returning to Venice after two years acting in London, Gaetano and Zanetta Casanova rented this house (on what was then known as Calle de la Comedia), reuniting a three year old Giacomo with the family, which now included his one year old London-born brother Francesco (who would go on to become a famous painter and whose real father is rumoured to have been King George II). He would be joined by a further brother and two sisters whilst living here.
It is believed that Casanova lived here from 1728 until the age of eight, when his 36 year old father died in the property from a tumor caused by the wrong medicine being prescribed for an ear infection.
“Two days before his death he sent for us all to appear at his bedside in the presence of his wife and of the Signori Grimani, Venetian noblemen, as he wished to obtain their promise to become our protectors.”
With responsibility of the young family now passed to the Grimani brothers (Alvisio, Zuane and Michele - Casanova’s suspected real father), Zanetta Farussi would leave the family again to travel across Europe with the theatre, renting out the house and passing the young Casanova back in to the care of his grandmother on Calle De La Muneghe.
Following his studies in Padua, Casanova would return to his family home on Calle de la Comedia in 1739, aged 14, living here with his brother Francesco until the age of 18 (in 1743).
“I was placed in excellent lodgings with my brother Francesco, who had been enrolled to study theatrical architecture. My sister and younger brother lived with my grandmother in a house that belonged to her and in which she wanted to die, since her husband had died there. The house I lived in, large and very well-furnished, was the same in which I had lost my father, the rent for which my mother continued to pay.”
The house had a beautiful entrance and a large ballroom, in which a 17 year old Casanova would host a party in 1742 for the 19 year old Giulietta Preati, a beautiful famous opera singer and mistress to Marco Muazzo, a rich Venetian nobleman. It was at this party that the two would swap make-up and clothes in Casanova's third floor bedroom, for one round of dances. She would hit him over the ear in disgust at his sexual advances as they got changed. His womanising ways obviously not being perfected by this point.
Following his grandmother's death, and with his own mother now living an actor's life in Poland, Casanova was evicted from his childhood home when the Grimanis sold his family estate. Casanova managed to sell all the furniture and fittings, pocketing the profits for himself and selfishly disregarding his younger siblings, before being sent to the priesthood on the island of Murano in March 1743.
It is possible to stay next door to this building at the aptly named “Cà de Casanova” holiday apartment ~ Book Here ~
Alternatively, stay directly opposite on Corte de la Vida at:
San Marco 3017 ~ Book Here ~
Ca' Vida Trifora ~ Book Here ~
Ca' Vida Mezzà ~ Book Here ~
Ca’ degli Oresi, with a rooftop terrace overlooking Casanova’s house ~ Book Here ~
or Ca-Nova, decorated with 18th century style furnishings. ~ Book Here ~