Ca' Rezzonico

Most visitors only ever see Venice's palaces from a vaporetto, admiring their facades on the Grand Canal. Ca' Rezzonico lets you walk right in. Begun in the seventeenth century to designs by Baldassare Longhena, the architect of the Salute, and completed in the following century by Giorgio Massari for the Rezzonico family, newly rich and newly ennobled, it is one of the grandest palaces on the canal. Later owners included the son of the poet Robert Browning, who died here in 1889, and today it belongs to the city's civic museums as the Museum of Eighteenth-Century Venice, filled with paintings, furniture, frescoes and decorative arts from the Republic's final, glittering century. The visit begins on the piano nobile, up a grand staircase, in the enormous ballroom, whose trompe-l'oeil frescoes and Murano chandeliers set the tone, then runs through a sequence of state rooms with ceilings by Giambattista Tiepolo, including the Nuptial Allegory painted for a Rezzonico wedding, carved furniture by Andrea Brustolon, and lacquered pieces in the Venetian chinoiserie style. Upstairs, the picture gallery holds two rare Canaletto views (rare because most of his work left for England), Francesco Guardi, Rosalba Carriera's pastel portraits, and the charming small canvases of Pietro Longhi, which show Venetians at home, at the hairdresser and at the masked ridotto. A highlight for many is the series of frescoes by Giandomenico Tiepolo, detached from his family villa and reinstalled here, with their acrobats, Pulcinella clowns and the crowd gazing at a peep show.

Visiting: Ca' Rezzonico has its own vaporetto stop on line 1, the slow Grand Canal route, so you can arrive by water as the Rezzonico guests did. It is closed on Tuesdays, and opening hours are shorter in winter than in summer, so check before you go. Tickets can be bought at the door or in advance with an entry window through Tiqets; the civic museums' Museum Pass also covers it, which is good value if you plan several MUVE museums such as the Doge's Palace and Ca' Pesaro. Allow about an hour and a half; the rooms are large but the collection is varied enough to hold attention.

Hidden extras: on the upper floor, the reconstructed eighteenth-century pharmacy, with its jars and wooden fittings, is a delight; there is also a separate picture collection donated by Egidio Martini, with works from the fifteenth to the twentieth century. Look out of the windows of the ballroom and the portego, the long central hall, for views straight down the Grand Canal, especially toward the Accademia Bridge and the Palazzo Grassi opposite. The ground floor and the water entrance give a sense of how a palace really worked, with boats arriving at the door.

Who it suits: anyone curious about how Venetians lived at the height of their elegance, art lovers who want to see Tiepolo in a setting he designed for, and families with children who enjoy the costumes of the Longhi paintings and the clowns of Giandomenico Tiepolo. Combine it with the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the Frari, both a short walk north, or with the Accademia and a spritz on Campo Santa Margherita, the student-filled square just behind the palace. One honest caveat: the rooms are kept dim to protect the paintings and textiles, and some upper-floor sections can be closed for rotation or staffing, so the experience is atmospheric rather than bright. Bring patience for the stairs, as the visit climbs through several floors, and if you have limited mobility ask at the desk on arrival about accessible routes.