Piccolo Mondo

About this place Piccolo Mondo

Piccolo Mondo at Accademia 1056 is a Venetian institution — the city's only explicitly gay bar and discotheque, operating in a small space near the Gallerie dell'Accademia. It is a late-night venue by design: opens at midnight, runs until 04:00 on weekends. The space is tiny by almost any standard — a bar, a small dance floor and not much else — but within Venice's particular spatial logic this works perfectly. The city empties of day-trippers after 18:00 and the permanent population and hotel guests who remain constitute a smaller, more interesting nightlife environment. Piccolo Mondo is where that population goes to dance. The music is commercial: pop, house, chart. The crowd is mixed gay/lesbian with queer-friendly straight Venetians. Entry requires payment of an Arcigay membership card (few euros). The Accademia location — Venice's finest art museum is next door — provides the kind of juxtaposition that only this city delivers.