Libreria Acqua Alta

The self-proclaimed "most beautiful bookshop in the world" stores its inventory in bathtubs, gondolas, and waterproof bins — because when your shop floods regularly with lagoon water, conventional shelving is just a slow way to make papier-mâché. The owner was warned about the flood risk when he took the lease and decided to lean into it, naming the shop "Acqua Alta" (High Water) and treating every high tide as a design feature rather than a disaster.

The centrepiece is a full-size gondola in the middle of the main room, piled high with second-hand books. Canoes, rowing boats, and even a functioning bathtub serve as display cases. The Venetian-style emergency exit is a wooden door that opens directly onto a canal — probably the only fire exit in the world that leads to water. Out the back, a staircase built entirely from damaged and unsellable books leads up to a view over the canal wall. It's become one of the most Instagrammed spots in Venice.

The books themselves are a beautiful mess: art books stacked on travel guides stacked on Italian pulp novels, with maps, vintage magazines, and old postcards mixed in. There's no particular organising system, which is either charming or infuriating depending on whether you're looking for something specific. The shop is also home to several cats who sprawl across the merchandise with the proprietary air of creatures who know they own the place.

It's completely tourist-oriented, slightly chaotic, and totally wonderful — one of those places that could only exist in Venice, where the relationship between books and water has always been complicated.