Libreria Acqua Alta
Libreria Acqua Alta features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Venice. Give it roughly ~45 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type landmark
- Suggested visit ~45 min
- Venice Venice guide
About Libreria Acqua Alta
The world's most extraordinary bookshop, where books are stored in gondolas and bathtubs to survive Venice's floods, home to resident cats and a staircase built from book spines.
The Libreria Acqua Alta, the Bookshop of High Water, is a secondhand bookshop in the Castello district of Venice that has become one of the city's most famous and beloved eccentric institutions. Founded by Luigi Frizzo in 1990, it takes its name from the very practical reason its books are stored as they are: in gondolas, bathtubs, bathtubs with wheels, large plastic bins, and overflowing shelves, all arranged to protect the books from periodic flooding.
The shop has no particular order or organisation, books in Italian, German, French, English, and many other languages are jumbled together, often damp-edged and slightly warped, covering every surface of a series of interconnected rooms. Resident cats sleep on stacks of books, on the windowsills, and in the gondola. The shop opens onto a small courtyard with a staircase leading to a canal-view platform, the staircase is built from densely packed volumes of old encyclopaedias, atlases, and other heavy books.
The Libreria Acqua Alta appears regularly on lists of the world's most extraordinary bookshops and has been featured in countless travel publications. It is a genuinely idiosyncratic place that seems to embody a certain Venetian spirit: eccentric, charming, slightly chaotic, and absolutely determined to survive.
Did you know? The Libreria Acqua Alta stores its books in gondolas and bathtubs specifically to keep them above flood water level when the acqua alta hits, it is the only bookshop in the world with this flood-protection system.
How long is a visit to Libreria Acqua Alta?
Set aside roughly ~45 min for Libreria Acqua Alta. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Libreria Acqua Alta worth your time?
Libreria Acqua Alta is among the 42 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Venice, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Venice
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