Villa Trissino and Villa Pojana

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Villa Trissino

   Gian Giorgio Trissino was a poet, diplomat and amateur architect, and in the 1530s he had a clever idea. He saw a young stonemason working at his villa in Cricoli, on the edge of Vicenza, and decided to turn him into an architect. He gave the man a classical education, took him to Rome to study the ruins, and gave him a new name, Palladio, after Pallas Athena and the angel in his own epic poem. The stonemason was Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, and he became the most influential architect in the history of the West. The villa at Cricoli, where it all began, is a modest building of the early sixteenth century with a loggia and a tall, plain front.

   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 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 about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Pojana.

3. 3. 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

   about 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Pojana. Next is back through Villa Trissino.

4. 4. 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.

5. 5. 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 at Villa Trissino. That is the ride.