3a - Calle de la Comedia

Calle Malipiero 3082 - Casanova Family House

Leaving the Corte de la Vidai, turn left back on to Calle dei Orbi…

• Turn right at the end on to Calle Malipero (named Calle de la Comedia in Casanova’s day).

• Look for house number 3082 (on your right).

Just like Giacomo Casanova’s actual birthplace, the location of his family home has also been disputed.

Until Federico Montecuccoli’s extensive research in 2003 suggested the house rented by Casanova’s mother, Zanetta, was more likely to be Calle dei Orbi 3089, a previous study by leading “Casanovist” Helmut Watzlawick placed its location here at Calle Malipero 3082.

Indeed, for many years prior to the Swiss scholar’s 1999 research, it was widely assumed Casanova was born somewhere on Calle Malipero and a plaque at the end of the street (on your left) still states “In a house on this street, old Calle de la Comedia, born 2 April 1725, Giacomo Casanova."

This plaque was mounted at the behest of the famous Italian author Piero Chiara (1913 - 1986), best known for his 1976 book La stanza del vescovo (The Bishop’s Bedroom), adapted into a film by Dino Risi, and his phenomenal 1977 Casanova biography Il vero Casanova (only published in Italian).

Whatever the truth on where Casanova lived between 1725 and 1743, there can be no doubting that this street, and those surrounding it, are unquestionably still the most important during his life in Venice.