Casanova's 300th Anniversary

Giacomo Casanova's birthplace is not located where the plaque was affixed, on calle Malipiero (calle della Commedia at the time) but this is where he lived from 1726 to 1743.

His real birthplace is behind the door above (and below) at number 2993 (number 1 at the time) on the calle delle Muneghe. This is where his grandmother lived and where he lived during his first year, his parents being away traveling.

Casanova's first memory, that he talks about in Histoire de ma vie, is a nasal hemorrhage in his bedroom when he was eight. His grandmother Marzia washes his face and takes him to Murano aboard a gondola.

She knocks at the door of a hovel....

"There they find an old woman sitting on a makeshift bed, holding a black cat in her arms, and surrounded by five or six others. She was a witch. The two old women spoke for a very long time, I suppose of me. At the end of their dialogue in the frioul language, the witch, after having received a silver ducat d'argent, opened a chest, carried me in her arms, laid me inside and locked the chest, telling me to not be afraid..." (Histoire de ma vie, Giacomo Casanova).

Casanova tells us that he was very scared and that the witch's words were not very reassuring. He took care to not move around in his chest, trying to press his handkerchief to his nose to prevent his blood from staining the inside of the chest...