Libreria Acqua Alta Site Features

Look for the resident cats that live among the stacks, the full-size gondola used as a bookshelf, and the staircase of old encyclopedias out back, which opens onto a small courtyard with a canal view -- arguably the shop's single most photographed spot.

The shop sits on the Calle Longa Santa Maria Formosa in Castello, a few minutes from Campo Santa Maria Formosa and about ten from St Mark's, on a canal with a water door at the back.

Its whole design follows from that address. The building floods -- this is a low-lying part of Castello, and the shop takes water regularly during acqua alta season -- so the stock lives in bathtubs, barrels and a gondola, raised off a floor that is expected to go under.

The back courtyard is the reason the place photographs the way it does: a small enclosed yard where two windows were walled up, with the staircase of ruined encyclopedias built against the wall and a view over the canal from the top step.

The surrounding calli are ordinary residential Castello, narrow and quiet, which makes the queue outside the door on a busy afternoon conspicuous in a way it would not be nearer the Piazza.