Ca' Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art

This guide to Ca' Pesaro in Venice follows Felicita Bevilacqua, a noblewoman from Verona who tended wounded rebels with her own hands during Italy's eighteen forty-eight uprising and later married one of Garibaldi's generals, helping bankroll his most famous campaign. You'll hear how, decades on and widowed in this same Grand Canal palace, her instinct for backing outsiders turned toward Venice's official art establishment and the young painters it shut out. Look up at the palace facade as you approach, still the same stone she lived behind.