Ca’ Rezzonico (Museo del Settecento Veneziano)

Other museums may illuminate, but this one sparkles. This period-piece Longhena palace showcases 18th-century arts in lavish music salons, sumptuous boudoirs, even a pharmacy with medicinal scorpions. Several salons are crowned with ceiling masterpieces by Giambattista Tiepolo, in rare form with sensuous beauty and shameless flattery. The Throne Room shows gorgeous Merit ascending to the Temple of Glory clutching the Golden Book of Venetian nobles’ names – including Tiepolo’s patrons, the Rezzonico family. Other collection highlights include the Pietro Longhi Salon satirising of society antics observed by disapproving lapdogs; the Sala Rosalba Carriera, with her unvarnished pastel portraits of socialites that aren’t strictly pretty, but look like they’d be life of any party; and on the top floor, the Vedustisti galleries featuring Emma Ciardi’s moody canal views. Check the schedule downstairs for VeniceChamber Music Orchestra concerts, played in the proper period splendour of the frescoed ballroom.