Courting Casanova

A museum is opening in the Venetian hometown of the 18th-century adventurer, Giacomo Casanova, in hopes of revitalizing his image as a notorious womanizer.

This is not to say that the Giacomo Casanova Museum and Experience hides Casanova’s romantic exploits. In fact, it includes a bedroom containing a shadow installation that depicts a scene of Casanova seducing a woman and visitors become the onlookers. Curators are seeking to shed light on other aspects of the Venetian scholar and writer whose memoir, "History of My Life," provides one of the best chronicles of European high society of the late 18th century.

For those unfamiliar with who Giacomo Girolamo Casanova is, he is best known as an Italian adventurer and author from Venice and his autobiography, Histoire De Ma Vie. Casanova used many names including Baron (or Count) of Farussi or "Chevalier de Seingalt" and often signed his works "Jacques Casanova de Seingalt" after he began writing in French due to his exile from Venice. He has become so famous for his many affairs with women that his name is now synonymous with "womanizer".

Museum director, Andrea Cosentino, stated "We want this character, this person, to be known in his entirety... Here we give the basis of what he was, not only as a lover but also as a man, philosopher and scholar." Using the power of virtual reality technology, museum goers are able to journey across Casanova's youth, his travels across Europe, his arrests, escapes, personality, and accomplishments.

The museum is now open to visitors after it’s grand opening on April 2nd (Casanova's birthday) in the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava in Venice. For more information, visit the installation's official page HERE.

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