Giacomo Casanova. The mere mention of his name awakens the imagination in all of us. Everyone, from the furthest corners of the Earth, has heard of him.
But who exactly was Giacomo Casanova, the Venetian man who named himself ‘chevalier de Seingalt’? Was he a lawyer, a poet, a philosopher or an adventurer? Mathematician, writer or novelist? Some say he was a magician, a spy and a freemason. Others describe him as a violinist, a playwright and even a financial expert. Which of these identities was real? All, or perhaps none of them. He was undoubtedly a man with an above-average degree of ability and intelligence which, together with his capricious personality, made him unpopular among Venice’s rich and powerful during a historical period rife with contradictions.
Yet he embodies all of these contradictions: poverty and opulence, restraint and lavishness, subservience and a longing for freedom, lasciviousness hidden beneath a cloak of false modesty.
He is master of his world; he loves it and yet despises it. He examines and probes into it, rendering it in vivid detail in his memoirs that not only provide us with a series of bold and erotic adventures but also a portrait of Venice and Europe in the eighteenth century.
Thus, Casanova is not a cruel Don Giovanni but an attentive observer of reality and human nature.
Piecing together his life and adventures among the places once marked by his life can be a novel way of visiting Venice, starting out from his birthplace around Ca’ Grassi, continuing on to St. Mark’s Piazza and ending in Campo San Giovanni e Paolo.
