Palladio’s Villas in the Veneto – Arrival in Venezia

Our group departs Vicenza (pop 110,563 in 2025) and heads to Venezia (pop 249,466 in 2025). This is the end of the 'basic' tour (Villas of the Veneto) and the start of the 'extended' tour. The group will decrease by half, as about a dozen plan to depart at the airport. Trying to push two dozen people around the alleys of Venezia on a walking tour sounds like logistical torture, so the downsizing is a both a somber and welcome eventuality.

Before we leave Vicenza completely, we make two final stops at the edge of town to see our last Palladio 'villa' and for lunch, which will be the entire group's last hurrah

Villa La Rotonda

Villa La Rotonda (1567-90) opens at ten, but we arrive before nine – another 'special access' perk of the tour. As always, the approach is from the northeast, up the long sunken alley. The roses are in bloom, and the lawn is cut. La Rotonda is ready for the new day.

If I had to pick one 'final boss' villa, La Rotonda is the obvious choice, and we have it all to ourselves for an hour. However, Palladio himself does not call La Rotonda a 'villa', in I Quattro Libri he calls it a "suburbano" and includes it with the palazzi:

Questo Gentil'huomo [Monsignor Paolo Almerico] dopo l'hauer vagato molt'anni per desiderio di honore; finalmente morti tutti i fuoi; venne à repatriare, e per suo diporto si ridusse ad un suo suburbano in monte, lungi dalla Città meno di un quarto di miglio: oue ha fabricato secondo l'inuentione, che fegue: la quale non mi è parso mettere tra le fabriche di Villa per la vicinanza ch'ella ha con la Città, onde si può dire che fia nella Città istessa. [Andrea Palladio, "I Quattro Libri dell'Architectura", Apresso Bartolomeo Carampello, 1581]

This gentleman [Monsignor PAOLO ALMERICO] after having travelled many years out of a desire of honour, all his relations being dead, came to his native country, and for his recreation retired to one of his country-houses upon a hill, less than a quarter of a mile distant from the city, where he has built according to the following invention: which I have not thought proper to place amongst the fabricks of villa's, because of the proximity it has with the city, whence it may be said to be in the very city. [Andrea Palladio, "The Four Books of Architecture", trans Isaac Ware, London, 1738]

 

 

 

Q: After yesterday's dissertation on the Ionic order and corners, is it surprising that Palladio employs straight (pulvinar) capitals across the hexastyle temple front?

A: Each of the four facades is a geometric extension of the sala centrale and 

the cupola: you are not meant to wander around the outside, but to go in, so your primary view of the portico is face-on.

 

Even Palladio does not know how to categorize it. This is my fourth visit (2017, 2018, 2023), so I hang back, listen to the tour Director's introduction, and rediscover La Rotonda's inscrutable character through the eyes of my fellow travelers.

We enter the southeast portico. I watch as the others find the central hall, make several loops while staring up at the dome, then reappear from another portico, unsure which way they are facing. The facades may be identical, but each landscape is different, and each emergence allows the guests a fresh view and understanding of the world.

Villa Valmarana ai Nani e Basilica di Santa Maria di Monte Berico

We walk the short distance to the Villa Valmarana ai Nani (c1670) to see the frescos by Giambattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo (c1757). And we have enough time to stop at the Basilica di Santa Maria di Monte Berico (15th and 17th centuries).

The mid-morning light strikes crisp shadows and brightens Vicenza as we take one last look from the terrazza.

 

 

 

 

 

Our farewell lunch is in a nineteenth century country villa. Afterwards, our bus takes the 'scenic route' along Il Brenta, and through Stra with views of some of the grandest palaces of the Veneto.

Our driver makes his final stop in the airport parking lot, which is a noisy and informal setting for our goodbyes. Then the group splits in two – some bound for the terminal and others headed for the taxi docks.

Taxi Acqueo

My past visits to Venezia have always been by train; I've never taken the taxi acqueo, so this is a first. Our luggage is piled near the pilot. When the boat hits the chop, we stare anxiously as the cases bounce against the gunwales.

But the ride is fantastically enjoyable, especially as the city comes into view. We are in two taxis, and I snap a picture as we pass the others, while a friend in the second boat takes a picture of us.

 

 

We pass the cemetery island of San Michele, and slow as we near Fondamente Nove. The framed canal views under the bridges are wonderful and welcoming. I am trying to capture that image, when the boat turns and its inertia carries us into the city. 

We cross below the Ponte dei Mendicanti and past the Chiesa di San Lazzaro (17th century) We float into the Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, where there is quite a traffic jam (top image).

A series of right-left-right turns brings us to the Campo Santa Maria Formosa, where the taxi acqueo pulls over and unloads by the Campiello Querini Stampalia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did not expect a taxi ride to be a highlight in a day that included La Rotonda and our return to Venezia. It made me remember the days when I had a roadster and could see in all directions while moving through a landscape. It certainly provides a new perspective.

By now it's almost six, and we have about two free hours to unpack and unwind.

Sera a Venezia

Our view, straight down, is of a narrow canal that must be on one of the prescribed 'gondola routes' because there is a line of them backed up towards the Campiello. I can see that the folks in the lower rooms are unfamiliar with shutter dogs.

There may be a lot of traffic, but it's silent – no singing, calling out sites, or loud chitchat, just a slow-moving line of narrow, black boats. The oarsmen must be concentrating to get under those impossibly low bridges. The gondolieri have the requisite striped shirts, but no scarves and no hats. The new viral accessory seems to be a down vest.

 

We have a little time before dinner and cannot resist a walk to the Piazza San Marco: the Procuratie, the Basilica, the Campanile, the Palazzo Ducale, and the Torre dell'Orologio – great to see all the famous sites again, in the relative quiet of an autumn evening.

I'm thinking about our departed friends who are missing this, also the whirlwind of villas in the Veneto. I suppose that's what travel and tours are about. We walk out to the edge of the Piazetta and think about tomorrow's itinerary: Palladio's churches of San Giorgio and Il Redentore. It has been a day of looking back and forward, of returning and seeing things anew.