Casa di Goldoni

Comedians, musicians and writers will feel inspiration bubbling up like a belly laugh from the stone floors at the birthplace of Carlo Goldoni (1707–93), Venice’s greatest playwright and a maestro of delicious social satire and opera buffa (comic opera). As the 1st-floor display explains (in Italian), Goldoni was a master of second and third acts: he was a doctor’s apprentice before switching to law, a backup career that proved handy when some comedies didn’t sell. But Goldoni had the last laugh, with salon sitcoms that made socialites laugh at themselves. The main draws in the museum are the 18th-century marionettes and puppet theatre, but don’t miss the chamber-music concerts held here. Otherwise, the entrance is the most striking part of the 15th-century Gothic house, with its quiet courtyard, private well and stairway in Istrian stone.