Villa Valmarana Bressan and Villa Trissino

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Villa Valmarana Bressan

   Palladio had a way of making a house look like a temple, and his clients were happy to pay for it. Andrea Palladio, born in Padua in 1508 and trained in Vicenza as a stonemason, designed dozens of villas for the landowners of the Veneto, using the proportions of ancient Rome to give their country houses a sense of order and dignity. The Villa Valmarana, at Monticello Conte Otto, just north of Vicenza, dates from the middle of the sixteenth century and is one of the buildings that UNESCO lists with the city of Vicenza and the Palladian villas of the Veneto. It stands in a field, with a pedimented front and neat flanks, and the loggia is the sort of space that makes you want to sit down and read.

   Read the complete Villa Valmarana Bressan write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Villa Valmarana Bressan is where the day begins. Next is Villa Chiericati.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Trissino.

3. 3. 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

   about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Trissino. Next is back through Villa Chiericati.

4. 4. 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, late in the day. Next is Villa Valmarana Bressan.

5. 5. Villa Valmarana Bressan

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa Valmarana Bressan write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Villa Valmarana Bressan. That is the ride.