Hotels near Palazzo Mocenigo

The Mocenigo family held this palace into the twentieth century. It opened to the public in 1985 after restoration, and a 2013 reworking put twenty rooms of the first noble floor on show, under ceilings frescoed in 1787 by Jacopo Guarana and Giambattista Canal. The study centre attached to it holds more than 13,000 costume figurines from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, drawn from the Correr, Guggenheim, Cini and Grassi collections.

For anyone planning a costume this is the reference material. Mannequins wear real seventeenth and eighteenth century Venetian garments in the rooms those garments were made for, and a further sequence covers Venice's trade in perfume, down to the raw ingredients and the glass the scent was sold in. Going here before you hire anything tends to save money, because half an hour with the originals makes plain how far a rented polyester tricorn sits from the thing it copies. Full period costume hire from a Venetian atelier runs to several hundred euros a day and the serious workshops take bookings months ahead of Martedì Grasso.

Venezia Unica, the city's official ticketing portal, lists admission at 15 euros full and 7.50 euros reduced. Published timetables disagree: some give 10:00 to 17:00 daily, others 10:00 to 18:00 with Monday closed, so confirm the day before rather than crossing the city on faith. Last admission is an hour before closing. Carnival makes almost no difference to the numbers inside. San Stae is one stop up the Grand Canal from Rialto and most of the costumed traffic never gets off the boat.

Pro Tip: Take the line 1 vaporetto north to San Stae before 11:00 and do this first. Southbound line 1 boats towards Rialto after midday during Carnival regularly fill up and leave people standing on the pontoon for two or three sailings.