Villa Gazzotti Grimani and Tombola

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Villa Gazzotti Grimani

   Palladio is the reason most people know the Veneto's villas, and this was one of his first. Villa Gazzotti Grimani stands at Bertesina, just west of Vicenza on the edge of the flat plain, and dates from the early 1540s, when Andrea Palladio was still a stonemason's apprentice turned architect, not yet the man whose Four Books would shape buildings from Virginia to St Petersburg. It was designed for the Gazzotti family and later passed to the Grimani, whose name remained attached. The plan is bold: a centre block with a loggia stacked above a loggia, and a pair of wings that were meant to curve forward but were never completed.

   Read the complete Villa Gazzotti Grimani write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Villa Gazzotti Grimani 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 29 km in. Next is Villa Pisani.

3. 3. Villa Pisani

   Montagnana is one of the best-preserved walled towns in Europe, with its entire ring of medieval brick walls, towers and gates still standing around the old centre, and just outside the eastern gate stands a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Pisani at Montagnana, built for Francesco Pisani in the 1550s, is a two-storey palace with a classical façade facing the road, part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Unlike most of Palladio's country villas, it sits right at the edge of town, more urban palazzo than farmhouse, and its elegant columns make a striking contrast with the rugged walls nearby.

   Read the complete Villa Pisani write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   58 km in you reach Villa Pisani. Next is Tombola.

4. 4. Tombola

   In the flat, fertile plain south of Verona, near the town of Cerea, a low rise in the fields called Tombola hides the remains of a Bronze Age settlement. The site is listed among the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it belongs to a group of wetland villages that once stood among the marshes of the Valli Grandi Veronesi, a large area of wetland that was drained and reclaimed over the centuries.

   Read the complete Tombola write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Tombola, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Pisani.

5. 5. back through Villa Pisani

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Pisani write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Villa Pisani sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Trissino.

6. 6. 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 comes up 144 km in. Next is Villa Gazzotti Grimani.

7. 7. Villa Gazzotti Grimani

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Gazzotti Grimani write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Villa Gazzotti Grimani closes the day.