Our tour of the villas of Andrea Palladio continues. Yesterday, we hit several villas north of Vicenza, but we did not finish. So, today's itinerary (Day 4) picks up in the north, then takes us south to Padova (pop 207,694 in 2025). It covers a lot of distance, and this day could be a real test of logistics and the idea of taking a packaged tour.
For example, there is a bike race that starts in Vicenza, the Giro del Veneto 2025, and begins at noontime. But entries open at eight-thiry, so our bus driver is anxious to miss the crush. Our tour Manager asks us to gather early, but unfortunately, not everybody gets the message. There are hiccups and our start is delayed, though not by much, thanks to the cooperation of our driver and a speedy taxi.
Villa Porto Colleoni
Just before ten, we arrive in the Villa Porto Colleoni (15th century), in the town of Thiene (pop 24,183 in 2025). We're about fifteen minutes late. Some kind of production crew follows us into the Villa's court, and beings unloading Pelican cases. We meet our docent and begin our tour as gaffers aggressively open boxes, set out their gear, and quickly begin to fill the 'Atrio' (atrium).
Across the street is the Oratorio della Natività della Vergine (15th century). In the courtyard is a pozzo (wellhead) attributed to Palladio – more plumbing.
Even the official web site (with an online tour) calls this beautiful Venetian Gothic building "pre-palladiana".
The Atrio faces southeast and collects the morning light. Its painted pattern the carries evidence of Gothic decoration and erasure. We pass through the door to the northeast.
The 'Camerone del Camino' is covered with the now familiar frescos (c1570) by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Batista Zelotti. The themes and subjects are also familiar, such as justice and sacrifice: "Muzio Scevola e il Re Porsenna" (Mucius Scaevola and King Porsenna), "Il Convitto di Cleopatra" (banquet of Cleopatra), "La Clemenza di Scipione" (continence of Scipio), and "L'Incontro tra Massinissa e Sofonisba" (meeting of Massinissa and Sophonisba).
The room is much smaller than the 'portego' (central hall) of the Villa Caldogno, so the frescos are almost overwhelming.
By contrast, the 'Salon Rosso' is a fully furnished sitting room, considerable but comfortable. Big inky portraits and photos of the family are on display.
Behind the Villa is its 'Parco', and we enjoy a few minutes outside, where we admire the architecture and the garden. We are all taken by the door knocker, with Halloween just a couple weeks away; it is a bat holding a ball and chain.
Upstairs, on the piano nobile is 'La Galleria dei Cavalli', named for the oversized, seventeenth-century equestrian portraits attributed to local artist Francesco Balante.
The decorations of the walls are faded, though the entablature is generally intact. It is an interesting, if inconsistent mix of classical forms: egg and dart, bead and reel, and an unusual 'pleated fringe' border.
The household's fascination with horses is apparent in 'Le Scuderie' (stables, Francesco Muttoni, late 16th-early 17th centuries). There are thirty-two stalls, each separated by Asiago pink marble columns with putti. made in Vicenza by Orazio Marinali atelier.
However, as our Director points out, the stalls are likely not comfortable for the horses. Though made or carved wood, the stalls are tight; the horses were restrained and would not have been able to turn or lay down.
Villa Godi
In scale and presence, the Villa Godi (1537-42) is a remarkably close match to the Villa Porto Colleoni. Replace the Gothic windows and the houses are sort of interchangeable. This is one of Palladio's earliest designs, as evidenced by the lack of classical ornament. Also, unlike his more mature designs, the portego and the barchesse (farm building wings) are set back from the main block.
The Villa sits on a high hill and faces west, with an astounding view over the town of Lugo di Vicenza. The front garden is wonderfully well presented and lined with roses (top image). A wide hemicycle topped with figures extends to the west, and a more formal flower garden is in front of the south barchessa.
The dedication reads: "HIERONYMUS GODUS HENRICI ANTONII FILIUS FECIT ANNO MDXLII".
The frescoes in the loggia are by Gualtiero Padovano and include decorative grotteschi and workers appearing in the trompe-l'œil doors. The welcome over the door is taken from the Virgil's Aeneid and says, "PROCUL ESTE PROFANI" (Hence, O ye profane) – a proclamation by Aeneas before he enters the underworld.
On the reverse of the door linter is the inscription, "ET LIBERA NOS A MALO" (deliver us from evil).
The interior of the portego is filled with frescoes by Zelotti, all in excellent condition (frescos cataloged here). The two large scenes on opposite walls are the "Battaglia di Dario e Alessandro" (battle) and the "Restituzione del Corpo di Dario" (return of the body).
The "Sala delle Muse e dei Poeti" by Zelotti features caryatids in grisaille. Next, the "Sala dell'Olimpo" by Battista del Moro places us in a ruined Corinthian temple, with mythical scenes above the broken architecture; over the mantle is a tumbling god and falling entablature blocks. The "Sala di Venere" by Zelotti shows Venus, Cupid, and Vulcan over the fireplace; the room is decorated in the Ionic order.
The "Sala del Putto" shows deities in niches between Ionic columns and grottesche panels. The Doric order in "Sala dei Sacrifici" is drawn with dark, sharp shadows. Scenes of religious sacrifice are over the doors in grisaille.
Access to the lower rooms is at the bottom of the front stairs and to the left (east). The beautiful kitchen incorporates an eighteenth century rotisserie and leads out to another, smaller hemicycle and the terraced back gardens. The serliana of the portego is just above the door.
In the distance, on a diagonal, is a torre colombaia (dovecote tower). Palladio's drawing from I Quattro Libri does hint at this diagonal, though the arrangement of the barchesse is very different.
Also on the lower level, the "Sala delle Stagioni" also contains frescos by Zelotti.
We finish at the Villa Godi at about half-past twelve and walk down the twisty road to the bus. We're more than a half hour off our schedule now.
Lunch awaits in Padova (pop 107,976 in 2025), where the restaurant is holding our reservation.
Padova
By the time we finish lunch, it's after three. We make our way past the Chiesa di San Canziano (late 16th to early 17th centuries), which was once attributed to Palladio, but is now thought to be the work of Vincenzo Dotto and Giambattista della Sala – because of the polychrome, it is a bit reminiscent of the Capitaniato. The image in the center arch is "L'Immacolata Concezione" (Guy Louis Vernansal, c1725) and the Four Evangelists (with eagle, angel, lion, ox) stand above the cornice.
We stop at the Palazzo della Ragione (12th-13th centuries), which gives some idea for the 'pre-Palladio' look of the Basilica in Vicenza. We pause briefly near the Basilica di Sant'Antonio (13th-14th centuries) on our way to the Odeo, where we have a four o'clock tour.
But the docent is not there; she has forgotten our appointment. So, we make our way back, to the Basilica di Sant'Antonio. We are left to wander the enormous Basilica on our own as the Manager and Director try to reschedule.
There are no pictures allowed in the Basilica di Sant'Antonio (13th-14th centuries). We are sent on a kind of 'treasure hunt', to find specific images and objects: a flying skeleton, the tomb of a British aristocrat, etc. There is some Palladio inside: he designed a monumento to Cardinale Pietro Bembo. The 'treasure hunt' is an old schoolteacher's trick – send the kids in with a list, and you get a few minutes of quiet on a long field trip. I am familiar.
I'm only interested in finding the monumento, and I skip the rest. But the Basilica is enthralling and withstands repeated visits. Drawn to the tomb of Sant-Antonio, I walk through the chapels along the north aisle and around the ambulatory, before finding the monumento on a pier separating the nave from the south aisle. It's near the pulpit and faces into the nave.
It is a strikingly clean temple front, and its niche holds the Cardinale's bust (Danese Cattaneo). Surrounded by Gothic and Baroque chapels, its bare simplicity stands out, despite the swags and fluting expected in Corinthian (wikimedia image below).
cenotaph for Pietro Bembo (Palladio, c1547) – wikimedia
We gather in the Piazza del Santo at the predetermined time. Our tour leaders are able to connect with the docent from the Odeo, and we are rescheduled. We'll go to the Orto first, then to the Odeon at six.
Orto Botanico di Padova
The Orto Botanico di Padova (est 1545) is part of the Università di Padova. Its circular design is the brainchild of Daniele Barbaro, whom we got to know yesterday. Again, we are given maps and told to find a few specific plants. Again, I ignore those suggestions and wander off to enjoy the cool green spaces.
While others enter the round walls, I stumble out of the historical garden and find a tremendously long green house. In front, colossal scuppers fill long, rectangular lily pools. The Abbazi di Santa Giustina (17th century) is just beyond. Inside, interactive displays run lessons for young children. It is not what I expected, and I move on.
I return to the historical garden and re-enter the Renaissance. It does feel like I'm waiting for something else to happen, but the garden is lovely, and the respite is enjoyable (iPhone tour here). The Orto is full of views and moments.
We slowly reconvene in the gift shop, It's already been a long day, and we have one more stop. This is officially a slog, and some members of the tour are dragging. But everyone soldiers on. It's a British tour after all – stiff upper lip.
Loggia e Odeo Cornaro
The docent arrives just at six. The Loggia e Odeo Cornaro (16th century) are two separate structures, though an open, double arch extension reaches out and joins them. The Loggia (1524) is a rougher, but more proper Doric, with the correct spacing of triglyphs. The upper level is an enclosed Ionic. The Odeo inverse that, with an enclosed lower level and an upper loggia.
The design is by Giovanni Maria Falconetto, we squint and recognize the Palladian villa, barchesse, colombaia – but this is a different scale, and the design anticipates Palladio by at least a decade. It's his response to Alvise Cornaro's brief for a "villa di delizia", a place for the "comedia umanistica"
The Loggia's outer ceiling frescos are scoured by moisture. The panels at the top and back of the vault look fine, though the faces appear to be 'erased'.
While the Loggia is designed for theater, the Odeo (c1530) is for music. It is a 'rotunda' in miniature, a central octagon bounded by a series of smaller rectangular rooms. Each room gives a different decorative flavor: swirling reliefs, geometric frames, lattice-like faux-tiles, and theatrical frescos.
We enter through an exedra with inverted radial steps, into a short corridor beneath images of 'youth and age'. The central 'dome' is a cacphony of grotteschi by Padovano, supported on painted apses with scalloped domes and eagles, caryatids in profile, and balconies with balusters that look out on dramatic landscapes (Lambert Sustris). The cornstalks fill the pilasters and a painted meandro molding ties it all together.
It's an overload. My brain is buzzing. It's now half past six, and if we want to make our dinner reservation, we had better go.
Our escape is into the fading sky, around the Prato delle Valle (18th century), and past the Abbazi di Santa Giustina. The bus pulls out at about seven. Dinner is at eight, but a short walk from the hotel. We recover during the forty-five minute-ride, leaving just enough time to comb our hair and put our bags away.
These days are true tests of group touring, but we survive it. Tomorrow is our walking tour of Vicenza; we will not need the bus.
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