Ca’ Rezzonico

Ca' Rezzonico is the best place in Venice to see how the city's aristocracy lived in its final, glittering century. The palace was designed by Baldassare Longhena in 1649 for the Bon family, but they could not finish it, and it was the Rezzonico family who had it completed and remodelled by Giorgio Massari from 1750. Since 1936 it has housed the Museo del Settecento Veneziano, the city's museum of eighteenth-century Venetian art.

The visit begins with the ballroom, a double-height salon about 14 by 24 metres, its ceiling painted with Apollo's chariot and its walls covered in trompe-l'oeil architecture. From there a sequence of rooms shows furniture, lacquerwork, glass chandeliers and paintings in near-original settings. Giambattista Tiepolo painted several ceilings, including the Allegory of Merit in the Throne Room and an allegory celebrating a Rezzonico marriage in 1758. Pietro Longhi's small genre scenes of everyday Venetian life have their own room, and Francesco Guardi's The Parlour of the Nuns at San Zaccaria shows a curious corner of eighteenth-century society. On the second floor there are early works by Canaletto, including two views of the Grand Canal.

The poet Robert Browning died in an apartment in the palace in 1889, and the building's windows give some of the finest views of the Grand Canal of any museum in the city. Temporary exhibitions are held regularly.

Opening hours are seasonal: from April to October the museum opens 10:00 to 18:00, and from November to March 10:00 to 17:00, with last admission an hour before closing. It is closed on Tuesdays. Allow around ninety minutes. It suits anyone interested in interiors, fashion and social history, and it is usually calmer than the museums on St Mark's Square. Floors and steps can be uneven and slippery, so take care. The call centre and booking email handle information and reservations. The museum is rarely as crowded as the Doge's Palace, which makes it a good choice on a busy day, and it combines well with a late lunch in Dorsoduro.

Take vaporetto Line 1 to the Ca' Rezzonico stop, right outside. Campo Santa Margherita, with its cafés and bars, is a few minutes' walk away, and the Gallerie dell'Accademia is about ten minutes on foot.