Monumento a Carlo Goldoni (Monument to Carlo Goldoni), Venice

Carlo Goldoni, one of Italy's most renowned playwrights, revolutionized the traditional "commedia dell'arte" by infusing it with sharp political observations. Born in Venice in 1707, he came from the Ca' Centanni, a Gothic palace.

Goldoni's importance lay in providing good examples rather than precepts. He modeled his plays on those of Molière, although his plays are gentler and more optimistic in tone than the Molière ones. Goldoni's plays are still the staple of theatrical life in Venice, and ensure no risk of running out of material – allegedly, Goldoni once bet a friend that he could produce one play a week for the whole year, and won it.

A monument to Carlo Goldoni, made by sculptor Antonio Dal Zòtto in 1883, stands in San Bartolomeo Square, a stone's throw away from the Rialto Bridge, and is similar to the monuments found in Florence and Paris, where Goldoni eventually exiled himself. After his move to France, Goldoni's plays took on a clear anti-clerical tone and often satirized the hypocrisy of clergy and Church in general.

In his memoirs, Goldoni painted himself as a born comedian, careless, light-hearted and with a happy temperament, proof against all strokes of fate, yet thoroughly respectable and honorable.