Seductive Venice: In Casanova's Footsteps

Kathleen Ann Gonzalez

• 10 september 2012
• 9781301134762

Samenvatting:

“Here. Here is the house of Casanova, the Italian sex machine,” a gondolier claims as he points to a crumbling building. But some gondoliers are lying—or telling a different kind of truth. “Casanova, he was with many women in Venice, so he has many houses.”
It turns out they’re right after all.
Seductive Venice: In Casanova's Footsteps will take readers on seven walking tours of Venice to find the real houses of Giacomo Casanova: his birthplace; the street where he beat up a thief; the canal where Casanova saved Senator Bragadin from a fatal stroke; the scene of a courtesan’s party where the two traded clothes; the inn where Casanova and seven friends pleasured a wife. Then there are the churches—where Casanova met the woman who would lead him to his new lover, a cloistered nun; or the church steps where he was dumped after being kicked out of the seminary; and the theaters—where Casanova brought his fourteen-year-old lover, masked; or where he was accused of clipping coins. Of course, the walks include Casanova’s best-known haunts as well: the ridotto where he gambled away fortunes and the prison where he schemed for a year before his daring escape. Statues, alleys, bridges, canals—so many more sites hold the spirit of the famous lover.