Glass, art, music, research, non-extractive tourism, and ocean health: the city is increasingly a living laboratory of culture in dialogue with the world.
In November, a project born from a guestbook at Hotel Flora reconciles the city with tourism; Fabrizio Plessi creates with a material new to him, glass, with Barovier & Toso Arte; and Battiato is remembered at the Biennale. Murano Lights up the Winter in Piazza San Marco with light installations by master glassmakers, Venice International University celebrates thirty years of activity with conferences and meetings open to the city, Venetians reclaim the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Procuratie bring workshops open to all to Piazza San Marco, the Scuola Piccola Zattere inaugurates its 2025–2026 research program, and Fabrizio Ferri takes our breath away with a silent installation at Casa Sanlorenzo.
Who said Venice stops in November?
- Imaginative Tourists – Postcards from a Guestbook
An exhibition of graphic works by Sarah Mazzetti, vintage photographs, and design objects in a space dedicated to hospitality and culture
Casa Flora, Calle Larga XXII Marzo 2283/A, San Marco
November 15, 2025, open doors from 11 AM to 6 PM
Narrative, non-extractive hospitality: sensitive tourism as told by a Venetian family of hoteliers, the Romanelli Family. A reflection on the value of hospitality, shared time, and the friendships that are formed, through a precious guestbook rich with photographs, drawings, and memories. The project, the first signed By Romanelli Family, recounts sixty years of hospitality in Venice.
The Romanelli family, hoteliers for three generations, has created three locations — Hotel Flora, Novecento, and Casa Flora — which are part of the city’s cultural life and represent a way of understanding hospitality as an authentic and engaging experience, and a way of experiencing Venice through personal connections and recommendations.
From the guestbooks emerges an intimate portrait of the city created by travelers, portraying tourism as a cultural and human gesture, an exchange between those who travel and those who welcome: the Imaginative Tourist is one who travels with curiosity and respect, recognizing hospitality as a universal language.
Illustrator Sarah Mazzetti has transformed some of the most evocative guestbook entries into ten original illustrations, exhibited alongside archival materials in the rooms of Casa Flora, which is open to the public for the occasion as a place of memory and dialogue.
Imaginative Tourists, the first project by Romanelli Family curated by Archivio.com, expresses a contemporary vision of hospitality—an invitation to experience travel with mindfulness and gratitude, rediscovering the value of time, encounter, and shared memory.
- Fabrizio Ferri, Breathtaking
Curated by Geraldina Polverelli Ferri and Cristiano Seganfreddo
Casa Sanlorenzo, Salute, Dorsoduro 170
Until November 23, 2025
In the new Casa Sanlorenzo, overlooking the Basilica della Salute and open to the public as a meeting place for art, design, and sustainability, artist and photographer Fabrizio Ferri presents Breathtaking, an installation that takes your breath away. A large glass coffin, filled with seawater, sits at the center of a silenced room. Around it, on a black wall, twelve portraits are attached with two nails: Sting, Willem Dafoe, Helena Christensen, Misty Copeland, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gala Gonzalez, Julianne Moore, Bridget Moynahan, Carolyn Murphy, Isabella Rossellini, Susan Sarandon, and Naomi Watts express with a silent cry the suffering of marine animals and the destruction of marine ecosystems.
“When my daughter Emma showed me a photo of a dolphin and a whale killed by plastic and asked me what I could do, we went together to collect the plastics vomited by the sea,” says Fabrizio Ferri. “We brought them to the studio and I asked twelve people to interpret the last breath of those suffocated animals.”
Casa Sanlorenzo is a new cultural space in Venice commissioned by Massimo Perotti, Executive Chairman of Sanlorenzo, and designed by Piero Lissoni. The 1940s villa in Dorsoduro, restored with great attention to light and materials, opens to the city as a cultural laboratory in dialogue with contemporary art and the protection of the sea.
Free admission by reservation.
- Arcipelago Battiato
November 17-18, 9 PM
Teatro alle Tese, Arsenale
Sound, word, electronic music. The Biennale’s tribute to Franco Battiato featuring Malika Ayane. On November 17 and 18 at the Teatro alle Tese, the Venice Biennale celebrates the Sicilian composer and philosopher with a journey through his works. On stage is Malika Ayane, with transcriptions and re-elaborations by Michele Tadini and Leonardo Marino, in collaboration with SZ Sugar.
- Venetians’ Free Week at the Guggenheim
November 19-23, 9 PM
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Dorsoduro 701
From November 19 to 23, free admission for residents, students, and inhabitants of the Metropolitan City. Reservations from November 9 at 10 AM. During the week, short talks on the permanent collection and the exhibition Mani-Fattura: The Ceramics of Lucio Fontana, curated by Sharon Hecker. Saturday 22 and Sunday 23, children’s workshops by reservation.
- Fabrizio Plessi and Barovier & Toso Arte: Perdersi in un bicchier d’acqua
From November 23, 2025 to June 21, 2026
Barovier & Toso Arte, Fondamenta Manin 1/D, Murano
At Palazzo Barovier & Toso, the exhibition Perdersi in un bicchier d’acqua explores the dialogue between Master Fabrizio Plessi and Murano glass. The pioneer of video art transforms glass archetypes into luminous sculptures, suspended between matter and movement. A giant immersive installation involves Plessi’s technologies and the grand chandeliers of Barovier & Toso.
- R.S.V.P. Résonnez, S’il Vous Plaît
Scuola Piccola Zattere
Dorsoduro, Fondamenta Zattere ai Gesuati 1401
Friday, November 21, 6 PM
The Scuola Piccola Zattere, which supports artistic experimentation and the collective production of knowledge, inaugurates the exhibition R.S.V.P. Résonnez, S’il Vous Plaît, curated by Irene Calderoni and Margherita Falqui, featuring works by artists-in-residence such as Aliaskar Abarkas, Nabil Aniss, and Lemonot & Maria Eugenia Frizzele. With a sound performance by Aliaskar Abarkas with Ali Choupani on flute, the event opens the 2025–2026 research program.
- Murano Lights up the World
Procuratie, Piazza San Marco
Saturday, November 22
Twelve artist chandeliers light up Piazza San Marco for the third edition of Murano Illumina il Mondo. A project by the City of Venice and The Venice Glass Week. The protagonists of this unique project are the great Murano furnaces and renowned designers: Irene Cattaneo with Amadi, Luca Nichetto with Barovier & Toso, Simone Crestani and Joana Vasconcelos with Berengo Studio, Michela Cattai with Simone Cenedese, and Chahan Minassian with Nicola Moretti Murano.
- Thirty Years of Venice International University
San Servolo Island
November 27–29
On the Island of San Servolo, for thirty years, a campus has connected universities from all over the world with studies and activities on innovation, new technologies, art, culture, and major projects.
Venice International University celebrates thirty years of activity with conferences and meetings open to the city on November 27 and 28. Guiding Transitions is the conference addressing themes of artificial intelligence, inequalities, and the environment. On November 29, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Cittadellarte present the Third Paradise with a performance by Nicola Cisternino.
Info and program at www.univiu.it.
- Procuratie, a Space for Everyone
Activities at The Home of The Human Safety Net
Piazza San Marco 105
The Home of The Human Safety Net offers events with free admission for citizens, visitors, families, and young adults, including labs, meetings, concerts, and workshops on science, technology, inclusion, and social innovation. The program is always updated at www.thehumansafetynet.org.
Discover more on Venezia da Vivere
Read our monthly guide to events and exhibitions to experience Venice all year round through art, culture, and creativity.
Article by Laura Scarpa.
Images provided by the respective press offices.
