Fondazione Querini-Stampalia

At the southern end of Campo Santa Maria Formosa, the little Campiello Querini is resplendent with window boxes and flowers. Here, the 16th-century Palazzo Querini-Stampalia is the home of the library and gallery founded in 1868 by Count Giovanni Querini, who died the following year without any heirs.

Plenty of atmospheric original features remain intact, including the Murano mirrors and chandeliers: some rooms are used for the Fondazione's frequent exhibitions, often featuring contemporary art.

The Querini-Stampalia collection features a handful of masterpieces and bushels of the not-so-masterful, but works fascinating to anyone with a spark of curiosity about Venice in the 18th century.

This was the grand age of trivialization for the aristocracy throughout Europe, but nowhere pursued so feverishly as in Venice, where the spirit of adventure that had created the mighty Republic of yore had evaporated like perfume; patricians spent their days frittering away their ancestors’ huge heritage and doing their best to look like poodles. You can see them here in the childlike paintings of Gabriel Bella and in room after room of Venetian Biedermeiers by the indefatigable Pietro Longhi.