Andrea Palladio built many villas around the Veneto, but the one at Santa Sofia di Pedemonte, in the Valpolicella just north-west of Verona, is the oddball of the family. Commissioned by Marcantonio Serego in the mid-sixteenth century and never finished, it has none of the smooth classical calm of the Rotonda. Instead its courtyard is lined with giant Ionic columns built up from rough, rusticated blocks of local stone, as if the building were half turning back into the hillside. Only part of the planned design was completed, and the effect is wonderfully strange.
The villa stands among the vineyards of one of Italy's great red wine districts. Valpolicella's grapes, Corvina above all, are dried on racks for months before pressing to make Amarone, dense and powerful, and its sweet cousin Recioto. Many of the wine estates in the area are housed in old villas and farm courts, and the stone used throughout the valley, the pink and white limestone of the Lessini hills, gives the villages a warm colour. Verona itself, with its Roman arena and medieval bridges, is close enough to see from the higher slopes.
The riding is better than you might expect for a wine district. Small roads wind between the vineyards and villages of Negrar, Fumane and San Pietro in Cariano, and from here you can climb north into the Lessinia plateau, where hairpins lead up to high pastures, ancient stone huts and views over the Adige valley to Lake Garda and the Alps. Down in the valley traffic can be heavy around Pedemonte and on the main road into Verona, especially at rush hour. Autumn is the season, when the vines turn and the smell of fermenting grapes drifts over everything.
Fuel and shops are easy to find in Pedemonte and Arbizzano, both close by, and Verona has everything. The villa is a working estate and visits are not always possible, so look before you plan the stop around a tour. For food, try risotto all'Amarone or pasta e fagioli, and keep the tasting for the end of the day. Verona's summer opera season in the arena is worth planning a night around.