Palladio designed villas the way other architects write poetry, with proportion, rhythm and an ear for the landscape, and Villa Piovene at Lugo di Vicenza is one of his early ones. It stands on a slope at the foot of the Venetian pre-Alps, north of Vicenza, a stern box of pale stone fronted by a tall flight of steps and a temple-like portico of Ionic columns. The house was meant to be seen from below, rising out of the garden like a small temple, and the effect is of calm authority. Palladio is said to have designed it in the 1540s for the Piovene family, who were wealthy merchants and landowners.
The villas of the Veneto were working farms as well as country houses, with granaries, stables and dovecotes, and the owners spent the summers supervising harvests and entertaining friends. Palladio's villas, together with his palaces in Vicenza, are listed by UNESCO, and the architecture has been copied for centuries, from English country houses to the plantations of Virginia and the White House.
This is an easy, rolling ride. The country between Vicenza and the Asiago plateau is a patchwork of vineyards, orchards and cherry trees, with small villages and church towers, and the land rises in folds to the high ridges of the Alps. Breganze, five kilometres away, is the centre of a wine district known for its Torcolato, a sweet golden wine made from dried grapes, and for the red wines of the hills. From here, roads wind up toward the Asiago plateau in tight hairpins through pine woods, a classic ride for those who enjoy mountain bends.
Lugo is tiny, with barely a couple of thousand people, so for fuel and shopping head to Breganze or Thiene. The villa is private property and opens to the public only on limited occasions, so you are likely to see it from the road or the garden gate, and it is wise to check before you go. Spring and early autumn suit it, with soft light and clear air, and weekends bring a lot of cyclists on the quiet roads.