Villa Forni Cerato and Villa Pojana

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Villa Forni Cerato

   Not every Palladian villa is a palace. Villa Forni Cerato, in Montecchio Precalcino north of Vicenza, is a small, modest building, a cube with a simple loggia and pediment, built in the mid-sixteenth century for Girolamo Forni, a timber merchant and amateur painter. Its attribution to Palladio has been debated, but it is included in the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and its compact harmony shows how Palladio's ideas worked even at a small scale. It is privately owned and not always open, so check before planning a visit.

   Read the complete Villa Forni Cerato write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villa Forni Cerato is where the day begins. Next is Villa Trissino.

2. 2. Villa Trissino

   A Palladio villa that was never finished can be more interesting than one that was. At Meledo, a hamlet in the municipality of Sarego south of Vicenza, Andrea Palladio drew up grand plans for the Trissino brothers in the mid-sixteenth century: a central block topped by a dome, with long curved colonnades stretching out like arms toward the river. Only a fragment was built, and what you see today is a modest farm building and some remains incorporated into later structures. Yet the design, published in Palladio's Four Books of Architecture, became one of his most influential, and the site is part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.

   Read the complete Villa Trissino write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villa Trissino comes up 38 km in. Next is Laghetto della Costa.

3. 3. Laghetto della Costa

   The Euganean Hills rise abruptly from the flat plain south-west of Padua, a cluster of volcanic cones covered in vineyards, chestnut woods and olive groves. Arquà Petrarca, a medieval village on the southern slopes, is where the poet Petrarch spent his last years and died in 1374; his house can still be visited. Close by, in a small hollow between the hills, lies the Laghetto della Costa, a tiny lake that hides a big secret.

   Read the complete Laghetto della Costa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   76 km in you reach Laghetto della Costa. Next is Villa Chiericati.

4. 4. Villa Chiericati

   Villa Chiericati stands in the flat countryside east of Vicenza, at Vancimuglio near Grumolo delle Abbadesse, a cube of pale plaster with a deep, columned portico that looks as if a Roman temple has been grafted onto a farmhouse. That is precisely what Palladio intended. Designed in the 1550s for Giovanni Chiericati, it is often cited as one of the first villas in which he gave the main façade a full temple front, an idea he would repeat, refine and make famous, and which architects copied for centuries afterwards, from English country houses to the American South. Like the other Palladian villas of the Veneto, it is part of the UNESCO site that includes the city of Vicenza.

   Read the complete Villa Chiericati write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villa Chiericati, about halfway. Next is Villa Pojana.

5. 5. Villa Pojana

   Andrea Palladio could make a farmhouse look like a temple, and at Villa Pojana he did it with remarkable restraint. Built in the mid-sixteenth century for Bonifacio Pojana, a nobleman with military ambitions, the villa stands in the village of Poiana Maggiore in the flat country south of Vicenza. Its facade is almost bare: a great arched entrance framed by a Serlian motif with round windows, a pediment above, smooth plaster walls. The interior has frescoes by artists of the time. Like other Palladian villas of the Veneto, it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of the city of Vicenza and the villas around it.

   Read the complete Villa Pojana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villa Pojana sits at 153 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Chiericati.

6. 6. back through Villa Chiericati

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Chiericati write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Villa Chiericati comes up 191 km in. Next is back through Laghetto della Costa.

7. 7. back through Laghetto della Costa

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Laghetto della Costa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   229 km in you reach back through Laghetto della Costa. Next is back through Villa Trissino.

8. 8. back through Villa Trissino

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Trissino write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Villa Trissino, late in the day. Next is Villa Forni Cerato.

9. 9. Villa Forni Cerato

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Forni Cerato write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 338 km.