Villas of the Veneto; Villa Thiene (Quinto Vicentino)

Located at Quinto Vicentino's main intersection, Villa Thiene's brick facade does not look like much.  It's simplicity makes it blend well with the other buildings around it, making it very hard to spot while driving even though there are approximately five or six signs within a mile of the villa telling the driver that it is in fact in the immediate area.

Villas of the Veneto: Villa Cordellina Lombardi (Montecchio Maggiore)

Villa Cordellina Lombardi in Montecchio Maggiore is possibly one of the most elegant villas in the Vicenza area, an obviously baroque homage to Palladio's neoclassicism, introduced a little more than two hundred years before this villa's construction.  It has all of Palladio's symmetry, if not Palladio's concern for the totality of the building.  (The back and sides are a little ho-hum.)  However, just like Villa Valmarana ai Nani, the architecture is not the highlight of this villa, but the colorful, swirling frescoes by Tiepolo to be found inside.  

Palladian Villas Mapped

If you're like me, you are probably very excited to be in such close proximity to great architecture in Vicenza, but are always completely frustrated by the research involved in even trying to figure out where these villas are in Vicenza's countryside.  There are many Palladian villas in Vicenza, let alone the Veneto, and most of them are surprisingly hard to find despite their importance in the world of architecture.  A lot of times, an afternoon spent "villa-hopping" (such an exciting word, for such an inherently mundane task...i.e., looking at people's houses) quickly devolves into villa-hunting, and not villa-finding.

With this in mind, I decided to map all of Palladio's villas in the Veneto and especially in the immediate Vicenza area to make the hunt for them more enjoyable and less frustrating.  As you can see, some of these villas stretch out the all corners of the Veneto, occupying even the smallest little towns and frazione imaginable.  Hopefully all the efforts help you in your quest to understand Palladio's style and influence through his works.  Enjoy!

Villas of the Veneto: Villa Valmarana ai Nani (Vicenza)

Only a few steps away from the church in Monte Berico and Palladio's masterpiece the Rotonda, Villa Valmarana ai Nani is certainly not an attention seeker.  Within the compounds, protected by high walls topped with statues of dwarves, is a modest villa with no striking feature other than a disproportionately small pediment and a grand view of Colli Berici.  Inside, however, are the Tiepolos' Rococo masterpiece.   

Villas of the Veneto: Villa Gazzotti (Vicenza)

Largely forgotten and allowed to rot and crumble, Villa Gazzotti is definitely not one of Palladio's greatest achievement.  It looks more like a barn than a villa, its modest size dwarfed by the modern buildings around it.  It is definitely assertive, and it is clearly apparent as something other than just a regular ancient abode built simply to satisfy that need.  However, although left unrestored in the middle of a field somewhere in the northeastern part of Vicenza, the villa is an important milestone in Palladio's evolving use of decorations to mold the shape and look of a building, and a great display of the use of cheap materials (sadly, only apparent due to the building's state of disrepair) that made Palladio the Reniassance version of a McMansion designer.    

Andrea Palladio Recognized by the US Congress

Original document downloaded from here

Watch out: the recent celebrations of Palladio's 500th birthday gave me an idea. I'm in Vicenza, yet the only Palladian ville I have seen are Villa Contarini in Piazzola sulla Brenta and the crumbling Villa Gazzotti in Bertesina (which I pass on my daily run route). I need to remedy this. I aim to visit one of the sites at least each week, and hopefully post pics and interesting tidbits about them here. As if the almost 30 villas to pick from isn't daunting enough, I will also visit other villas around Vicenza such as Villa Valmarana ai Nani which, although not done by an architect as well-known as Palladio, are beautiful enough on their own to be visited and appreciated. Standby...

Summer flea market in front of Villa Contarini (attribution to Palladio is controversial)