Caffè Florian as featured in our downloadable Wallpaper* City Guide

One thing not to miss in Venice

Planning to visit the Architecture Biennale? Caffè Florian has entertained everyone from Proust to Casanova

If you're planning a trip to Venice for the Architecture Biennale which opens this weekend you'll probably find our Wallpaper* City Guide to Venice invaluable as a smart way of fast-tracking you to the best delights of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It really is a tightly edited, discreetly packaged list of the best a location has to offer the design-conscious traveller. Here's a little taste of what you'll find inside it. 

Since opening in 1720, Caffè Florian has flourished as a Venetian institution thanks in part to the famous personalities who flock here for its coffee, unrivalled hot chocolate and sugary pastries. It doesn’t hurt that the interiors are a set of gilded rooms, expanded and embellished by the Accademia di Belle Arti in the 1850s to include spaces such as the Senate Room, where the idea of the Venice Biennale was born. The café has entertained everyone from Casanova to Marcel Proust, and in warmer months the chairs and tables extend out on to the Piazza San Marco, where roving musicians perform classical numbers for the patrons. Florian continues to be popular, not only with tourists but Venetians and the cultural glitterati too. 

Piazza San Marco 56-57, T 041 520 5641, www.caffeflorian.com

Download the Wallpaper* City Guide to Venice here or buy the print version here.