Villa Serego and Villa Badoer

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Villa Serego

   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.

   Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Villa Serego is where the day begins. Next is Villa Caldogno.

2. 2. Villa Caldogno

   Villa Caldogno is one of the quieter Palladian villas, standing in a park on the edge of the town of the same name, a few kilometres north of Vicenza. Andrea Palladio designed it in the mid-sixteenth century for the Caldogno family, and it shows his early style: a compact, symmetrical block with a triple-arched loggia in the centre, a pediment above, and no unnecessary decoration. Inside, the main hall and rooms are covered with frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Battista Zelotti, depicting scenes of country life, banquets, games and love, painted with charm and humour. Like the other villas of the Veneto, it belongs to the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas.

   Read the complete Villa Caldogno write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Villa Caldogno comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Badoer.

3. 3. Villa Badoer

   Fratta Polesine is a quiet village in the Polesine, the flat, fertile land between the Adige and the Po in the south of the Veneto, and its pride is a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Badoer, built in the 1550s for Francesco Badoer, a Venetian nobleman, stands on a raised platform above the surrounding fields, with a temple-front portico, curved colonnades sweeping out on either side to farm buildings, and a grand staircase. It was the first of Palladio's villas to use the curved barchesse, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Inside, the walls carry frescoes, and the villa houses a museum about the Polesine and its history.

   Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 164 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Badoer. Next is back through Villa Caldogno.

4. 4. back through Villa Caldogno

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Caldogno write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Villa Caldogno, late in the day. Next is Villa Serego.

5. 5. Villa Serego

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Villa Serego. That is the ride.