THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PALLADIAN VILLAS – guided tour and hotel in a lovely medieval town

The villas designed by Andrea Palladio are almost perfect in their architectural style, wonderfully decorated by the great Renaissance artists and perfectly in harmony with the surrounding landscape. They really are the crown jewels of the Venetian countryside and you can find them in the province of Vicenza, not along the famous Brenta Riviera as is wrongly believed.

Some Palladian villas, listed by Unesco as World Heritage Sites, are only a few kilometers away from some quaint medieval towns and some famous vineyards and wine cellars. Therefore, you will have the chance to explore a part of Veneto off the beaten track and see the authentic side of this region.
You can experience all of this in our Palladian Villas Tour, which combines the guided tours to Palladio’s masterpieces with some free time to visit this wonderful region in complete freedom.

We are not fans of big organised group tours, where every minute is already planned, and for this we accept only from 6 to 12 people every weekend. You will be accompanied by Monica Facchini, an English speaking art historian and a licensed tourist guide specialised in Palladian Villas. Besides having some free time to discover Marostica and its surrounding area in absolute freedom, you will visit four of the most beautiful Palladian villas following this schedule:

Friday:

MAROSTICA, THE TOWN OF THE HUMAN CHESS GAME

Once you have arrived at the Boutique Hotel Due Mori, you will have the entire day at your disposal to explore Marostica, the most beautiful walled medieval town in Veneto, to visit some wineries in Breganze (9 km) or the ceramic workshops in Nove (4 km). If you decide to stay in Marostica, we recommend visiting the Lower Castle, walking to the Upper Castle along the panoramic footpath and tasting a "spritz", the local aperitif, in the pretty main square.

Saturday:

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PALLADIAN VILLAS

After a rich buffet breakfast, you will visit some of the most famous masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. During the full-day guided tour around four wonderful Palladian villas Monica will explain their history and reveal some little-known facts about the owners and the architect. It will be easy for you to understand the incredible role Palladio played in the development of the "new" style, which left a permanent mark on the western world's architecture. During the tour you will visit:

• villa Godi in Lugo, the first villa designed by Palladio in a charming position in the hills
• villa Angarano in Bassano del Grappa (only from outside), still surrounded by the vineyards so beloved by Palladio and close to the famous Alpini Bridge
• villa Barbaro in Maser, designed by Palladio and frescoed by Veronese under the clever direction of the Barbaro brothers
• villa Emo in Fanzolo, the only villa designed by Palladio which was built exactly according to his original project

For lunch, you will have some free time for a delicious snack in a typical tavern in Maser. Built inside the restored barn of the old annex farmhouse of Villa Barbaro, it offers a good selection of local cold cuts, salami, cheese and wines. The tour will finish mid-afternoon and you can spend the rest of the day visiting Castelfranco Veneto, the town of Giorgione, and Cittadella, where you can walk all the way round the town on the top of the medieval city walls.

Sunday:

SMALL MEDIEVAL TOWNS AND FAMOUS WINERIES

After checking out of the hotel, we recommend spending the day discovering the amazing medieval towns around Marostica. You can easily visit Bassano del Grappa, famous for its ancient wooden bridge and distilleries, and Asolo, the "City of a Hundred Horizons", much loved by Robert Browning, Freya Stark and many other artists from all over the world. Afterwards you can go on to Valdobbiadene, famous for its Prosecco.

The package does not include meals, entrance tickets to villas and transport, so you can drive to the Palladian villas, decide where to eat and what to do at the end of the guided tour.
Of course, if you do not have your car, Monica will be happy to give you a ride to the villas and we can organize for you the shuttle service from the airport/railway station to our hotel.

For any information, do not hesitate to contact us by phone or e-mail.