{"id":1944,"date":"2012-02-09T19:42:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T19:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/walks.friday.ie\/?p=1944"},"modified":"2025-04-11T15:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T14:54:17","slug":"casanova-the-lover-venice-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/art-culture\/casanova-the-lover-venice-italy","title":{"rendered":"More Than a Womanizer: The History Behind the Real Casanova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, Casanova is best known as one of the most famous lovers in history. But the Venetian was more than a womanizer. He was a scam artist and scofflaw, an alchemist, spy and church cleric. He wrote satires, fought duels, and escaped from prison more than once.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15651\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15651\" class=\"wp-image-15651 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Casanova.jpg\" alt=\"Giacomo Casanova. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"800\" height=\"764\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15651\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giacomo Casanova. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Casanova was simply fascinating. Read on &#8211; and prepare to be shocked!<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_80 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/art-culture\/casanova-the-lover-venice-italy\/#Church_to_military_to_music%E2%80%A6_and_womanizing\" >Church to military to music&#8230; and womanizing<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/art-culture\/casanova-the-lover-venice-italy\/#Escapades_and_imprisonment\" >Escapades and imprisonment<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/art-culture\/casanova-the-lover-venice-italy\/#Casanovas_daring_escape\" >Casanova&#8217;s daring escape<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/art-culture\/casanova-the-lover-venice-italy\/#Casanovas_many_scams\" >Casanova&#8217;s many scams<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Church_to_military_to_music%E2%80%A6_and_womanizing\"><\/span>Church to military to music&#8230; and womanizing<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Born in Venice in 1725, Casanova was a sharp child\u2014so sharp, in fact, that he entered the University of Padua at the age of 12. After graduating, he took up some of the vices that would make him a name Europe-wide. Gambling, for one. Women, for another.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it was his wit, his charm, or his style (or maybe just his hair, which he powdered, scented, and curled), they loved him. But it&#8217;s said that he really found his passion for them, too, when he had an affair not just with a 16-year-old girl, but with her 14-year-old sister&#8230; at the same time. (If that weren&#8217;t bad enough, years later, Casanova wound up in bed with one of the two sisters again\u2014and her daughter&#8230; who was also his).<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Casanova worked as a church cleric. It didn&#8217;t last long. His gambling debts landed him in prison, and after a couple of other false starts in the Church, he had to start over. His new career? As a soldier. &#8220;I bought a long sword, and with my handsome cane in hand, a trim hat with a black cockade, with my hair cut in side whiskers and a long false pigtail, I set forth to impress the whole city,&#8221; Casanova writes in his memoirs. But, finding military life boring and owing yet still more money from gambling, Casanova quit the military.<\/p>\n<p>Now 21 years old, Casanova became a violinist. There, he caught the eye of a senator\u2014being in the right place at the right time and saving his life certainly helped\u2014who invited Casanova into his house and became his patron. But Casanova ran into trouble <em>again. <\/em>He fled Venice, escaped to Parma, fell in love, and had his heart broken. He went on a Grand Tour and seduced dozens of women. He became a Freemason, wrote a play, and finally, on 1753, returned to Venice.<\/p>\n<p>And things were just getting started.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Escapades_and_imprisonment\"><\/span>Escapades and imprisonment<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_1949\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1949\" class=\"wp-image-1949 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/High-View-of-Venice-Italy-and-Doges-Palace-with-the-sea-behind.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/High-View-of-Venice-Italy-and-Doges-Palace-with-the-sea-behind.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/High-View-of-Venice-Italy-and-Doges-Palace-with-the-sea-behind-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1949\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Doge&#8217;s Palace, where Casanova was imprisoned &#8211; imagine trying to break through that roof!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>News of Casanova&#8217;s escapades &#8211; his tawdry affairs with everyone from married women to nuns to virgins, his gambling, his association with Freemasonry &#8211; had caught up with him. At 30 years old, Casanova was arrested by the Venice Tribunal, &#8220;primarily,&#8221; the Tribunal said, for his &#8220;public outrages against the holy religion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He was imprisoned in &#8220;The Leads.&#8221; And sentenced to remain there for five years.<\/p>\n<p>The cell, so-nicknamed because of the lead plates covering the roof, was thought to be completely inescapable. Almost pitch-dark, and with such a low ceiling Casanova couldn&#8217;t even stand up straight, it was located on the top floor (of five) of the Doge&#8217;s Palace. Like the rest of the prisons, it was heavily guarded. Escaping seemed impossible. Escaping and not being seen on the roof of the most famous building in Venice&#8230; or not being heard while clattering down the lead tiles? Even more so.<\/p>\n<p>Casanova remained in &#8220;The Leads&#8221; for 13 months. His patron, Count Bragadin, finally convinced his keepers to move him. And Casanova was heartbroken.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because he had been <em>thisclose <\/em>to breaking out. One day, while on a walk that he was allowed to take for exercise in the prison attic, he&#8217;d found a piece of black marble and an iron bar; he&#8217;d shaped the bar into a sharp chisel against the marble and then started to dig through the wooden floor beneath his bed. He knew his cell was right above the chamber of the Inquisitor\u2014an issue he&#8217;d deal with after he escaped. But he never got the chance.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, just three days before he planned to escape, he was moved into his new, larger, and more lit cell. But he didn&#8217;t languish in despair for long. It was time for Plan B.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Casanovas_daring_escape\"><\/span>Casanova&#8217;s daring escape<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A priest lived in the cell right above Casanova. The priest liked to read, and the jailers were okay if the two educated prisoners exchanged books. Casanova wrote a note, using mulberry juice for ink, and stuck it in the book&#8217;s spine. The two started writing back and forth. Casanova told the priest he planned to escape\u2014and asked for his help. All he had to do, he said, was break through his floor into Casanova&#8217;s cell. Then Casanova would spirit them both away.<\/p>\n<p>The priest, Balbi, agreed. Casanova sent him the spike he&#8217;d made: It was hidden in a Bible, which was carried under a big plate of pasta. After weeks of work, the priest broke through. But there was a new problem. Casanova had a new cellmate&#8230;. and he was a spy for the Doge&#8217;s Council of 10, something he immediately told Casanova. Ever the trickster, Casanova played on his new cell mate&#8217;s extreme faith. It had been revealed to him in a dream, Casanova told the man, that an angel was going to come deliver him from prison. When the two of them heard the priest digging away, that, Casanova said, was the angel.<\/p>\n<p>The man believed him.<\/p>\n<p>Balbi&#8217;s cell was right under the roof of the palace, so the two of them pried their way through the lead plates and, using the sheets, blankets, and even his mattress cover that Casanova had cut up and tied together to make &#8220;rope,&#8221; hoisted themselves onto the roof. But it was much too far to jump. Casanova searched everywhere. Nothing. Finally, after an hour, he saw a dormer window, two-thirds down the roof&#8217;s slope. Using his pick, he pried off the grate over the window\u2014and, after a perilous attempt that included Casanova himself almost sliding over the roof to his death, he was able to get both him and the priest inside.<\/p>\n<p>After resting, the pair broke a lock, walked into a palace corridor, and strolled out. They escaped by gondola at sunrise. &#8220;Thus,&#8221; Casanova wrote, &#8220;did God provide me with what I needed for an escape which was to be a wonder if not a miracle. I admit that I am proud of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(By the way, you can actually visit the very cell Casanova escaped from, and learn more about him, on our <a href=\"https:\/\/walksofitaly.com\/venice-tours\/doges-palace-secret-passages-vip-tour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">VIP Doge&#8217;s Palace Secret Passages tour<\/a>!).<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Casanovas_many_scams\"><\/span>Casanova&#8217;s many scams<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As much of a close call as his imprisonment was, Casanova didn&#8217;t take it as a sign that he should give up the game and retire to something a little more staid.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he fled to Paris &#8211; and pretended to be an alchemist. Every patrician wanted a piece of Casanova. He told them that he was 300 years old, that he could create diamonds from scratch. He caught the eye of a count, who saw through Casanova and decided that\u2014given his ability to say anything with a straight face\u2014he&#8217;d make an excellent spy.<\/p>\n<p>One of his missions was to sell state bonds in Amsterdam. He became a wealthy man&#8230; and then lost his wealth, particularly by spending it on his many lovers. Between his debts, and his many enemies, he found himself on the lam again.<\/p>\n<p>In 1760, completely penniless, Casanova&#8217;s schemes became wilder and wilder. He made up a new personality for himself: He was now the &#8220;Chevalier de Seingalt.&#8221; He went back to Paris and convinced a noblewoman he could make her a young man, using occult means&#8230; if she paid him enough. He traveled to England and scammed his way into an audience with King George III. He met with Catherine the Great, trying to sell her the idea for a Russian lottery scheme. He dueled a colonel in Warsaw over an Italian actress.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1951\" style=\"width: 248px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/544px-Casanova_1788.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1951\" class=\" wp-image-1951 \" title=\"Casanova in 1788\" src=\"http:\/\/walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/544px-Casanova_1788.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"238\" height=\"262\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1951\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Casanova in 1788<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In 1774, after 18 years of exile, Casanova won the right to return to Venice. Just nine years later, he wrote a vicious satire of Venetian nobility that got him expelled once more.<\/p>\n<p>In his later years, Casanova slowed down\u2014slightly. He became the librarian to Count Joseph Karl von Waldstein in Bohemia, a position Casanova found so lonely and boring he considered suicide. He resisted the temptation, but only in order to record his memoirs.<\/p>\n<p>Venice was seized by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1797. Casanova died the following year. He was 73 years old.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For more on Casanova, read his memoirs or Judith Summers&#8217; salacious book <em>Casanova&#8217;s Women <\/em>or check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/venice-tours\/doges-palace-secret-passages-vip-tour\/\">VIP Doge&#8217;s Palace Secret Passages tour<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, Casanova is best known as one of the most famous lovers in history. But the Venetian was more than a womanizer. He was a scam artist and scofflaw, an alchemist, spy and church cleric. He wrote satires, fought duels, and escaped from prison more than once. Casanova was simply fascinating. Read on &#8211; and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[69,136],"ppma_author":[155],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-culture","tag-history","tag-venice"],"authors":[{"term_id":155,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"walksofitaly","display_name":"Walks of Italy","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f4cd4dd0c5ab4b4bae57f3500298e23?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"http:\/\/walksofitaly.com\/blog","last_name":"of Italy","first_name":"Walks","job_title":"","description":"Walks began life as the passion project of two guys with one simple mission: To share their love for, and knowledge of, the city of Rome. Since then, Walks has grown into a team of over 100 ground staff and at any time up to 600 guides, operating across 13 of the world\u2019s most exciting cities (and counting!)\r\n\r\nToday we provide some of the most exclusive and beautifully designed small group tours in the industry through Italy-based Walks of Italy and around the world at Walks, where we offer special access to some of the world\u2019s most iconic landmarks and attractions as well as unique cultural experiences."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23128,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions\/23128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walksofitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}