On the Road
Casanova's Journey Across Europe: A City-by-City Timeline
Casanova travelled across Europe for more than sixty years, from a school trip to Padua in 1734 to his last journeys from Dux in the 1790s. He lived in or visited Paris, London, Berlin, St Petersburg, Warsaw, Madrid, Vienna and Constantinople, among many others. He was often on the move because he was expelled, fled or chased money.
Casanova was one of the great travellers of his century. The Memoirs take him through more than eighty places, from small Italian towns to St Petersburg. This timeline follows his route using the itinerary built into the app, which is drawn from the Memoirs and from later letters and documents.
1734 to 1750: Italy, the East and the road to Paris
- 1734. His first trip, at nine years old, from Venice to Padua for school.
- 1741 to 1742. Venice, Kythira, Constantinople and Corfu. This is his journey to the Ottoman capital.
- 1742 to 1743. Treviso and Pasiano di Pordenone, the trip with the thunderstorm episode.
- 1743 to 1745. Ancona, Rome and Rimini as an abbé, then Rome, Martirano and Naples as a secretary, and a trip to Corfu and Otranto.
- 1749. Milan, Mantua, Cesena, Parma and Geneva. The Henriette episode belongs to the years 1748 and 1749.
- 1750. Lyon and Paris. This is the first time Paris appears on his route.
1752 to 1756: Dresden, Vienna and the Leads
- 1752 to 1753. Paris, Dresden, Prague and Vienna, then home to Venice.
- 1755. Arrested and imprisoned in the Leads.
- 1756. After the escape: Munich, Strasbourg and Paris.
1757 to 1763: Paris and the Continent
- 1757. Paris and Dunkirk, on secret agent work.
- 1758. Amsterdam, on financial business.
- 1760. Amsterdam, Cologne and Stuttgart; then a flight through Zurich, Solothurn and Geneva; then Marseille, Pisa, Naples and Rome. He visits Voltaire at Ferney, near Geneva.
- 1761. Rome, Bologna, Turin and Paris, then Augsburg and Basel on a diplomatic mission.
- 1762 to 1763. Metz, Aachen, Geneva, Lyon, Turin, Genoa and Marseille. The app labels these "magic-related travels".
1763 to 1767: London, Berlin, Russia and Poland
- 1763. Paris, Calais and London, where he spends about nine months.
- 1764. London, Wesel and Berlin, where he meets Frederick II. Then Mitau, St Petersburg and Moscow.
- 1765. St Petersburg, Warsaw and Krystynopol, with about nine months in Warsaw.
- 1766. After a duel, Casanova travels from Warsaw through Leipzig, Dresden and Prague to Vienna.
- 1767. Expelled from Vienna, then from Paris, he reaches Madrid.
1768 to 1774: Spain and the homesick years
- 1768. Madrid, Zaragoza, Valencia and Barcelona. About ten months in Madrid and three in Barcelona.
- 1768 to 1769. Aix-en-Provence, where he falls dangerously ill, then Nice and Lugano.
- 1769 to 1774. Turin, Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Ancona and Trieste. He lives in Trieste from 1772 to 1774, hoping the Venetian authorities will let him return.
On 14 September 1774, he is back in Venice. This is also the point where the Memoirs end.
Follow the route on the map
The app has an interactive map of his journeys, linked to the chapters where each trip happens.
After the Memoirs: 1774 to 1798
The later journeys are better known from letters and documents than from the Memoirs.
- 1774 to 1782. Venice, with trips to Trieste, Bologna and Abano Terme, some of them as an agent for the Inquisitors.
- 1783. Vienna, then Frankfurt, Spa, Amsterdam and Paris.
- 1783 to 1784. Vienna, then a long tour through Prague, Dresden, Berlin and Leipzig, and back to Vienna.
- 1785. Teplitz and Dux, where Count Waldstein makes him his librarian.
- 1787 to 1788. Prague, mostly, and in October 1787 the time of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
- 1789. A carriage accident at Laun, which the app's itinerary links with the start of the Memoirs.
- 1790 to 1797. Short trips from Dux to Dresden, Prague, Leipzig, Weimar and Berlin, then Vienna.
Why was he always moving?
Looking at the notes in the itinerary, three reasons come up again and again:
- Expulsion and flight. He was expelled from Vienna, Paris and Florence, and left England in 1764 under a cloud (he jokes that he avoided the gibbet), and left Warsaw after a duel.
- Money. Lotteries, gambling, investments, and missions for governments paid for the journeys.
- Longing for Venice. The five years after 1769 are called "the homesick years" in the app.
Sources
- Itinerary section of the app, based on the Memoirs and later documents
- Casanova, Summary of My Life (appendix), and Arthur Symons, "Casanova at Dux" (English edition in this app)
Follow the route on the map
The app has an interactive map of his journeys, linked to the chapters where each trip happens.
Related questions
Casanova's Venice: Where He Was Born, Played and JailedA guide to the Venice of Giacomo Casanova: the parish where he was born, the gambling room, the palace prison he escaped from, and what survives today.
How Did Casanova Die? His Last Years at DuxCasanova died at Dux Castle in Bohemia on 4 June 1798. How he ended up there, what he did there, what he died of, and where he is buried.