The Nani Mocenigo villa is one of the Renaissance villas that adorn the Polesine and is considered by Canda, a small center in the province of Rovigo, as the most magnificent among the various residences left by the Venetian lords of the 16th century.
The date of the beginning of construction is uncertain, but accredited documents place it around 1580.
The author is probably Scamozzi, an architect and student of Palladio, but some also believe it to be the work of Longhena.

It overlooks the Tartaro River and presents two facades—one from the 1500s to the north and one from the 1700s to the south; the interior, heavily damaged by a fire in 1946, features various frescoes concentrated in the staircase and in the two front rooms of the main floor.
In Canda, it is said that Villa Nani Mocenigo is linked to the legend of the “Sad Countess” who probably still wanders, as a ghost, through the sumptuous rooms of the residence.
The story dates back to the 1600s when a Countess Nani residing in Venice was left by her beloved.
Desperate, she fell into such sadness that she was thought to have gone mad. Her brother Giovanni ordered her to retreat with her Spanish lady-in-waiting to Canda to find peace and serenity. Months passed, but her grief did not subside. One beautiful day, as if by magic, she became cheerful again and began to organize parties and receive guests. One day the two women left the residence to go to the blacksmith, and someone heard them ordering "rasuri" (razors).
At the receptions, the countess, beautiful and gracious, won the hearts of many men and generously reciprocated, but after a night of love, the unfortunate lover would disappear. It soon began to be said that the countess threw her lovers into the well of razors and that the poor souls ended up in the nearby Canal Bianco filleted like fish. Was it revenge, a pathology, or uncontrollable pain? Who knows, it has never been known, nor will it ever be known. One thing is certain: one fine day, both the countess and her lady-in-waiting disappeared.
Probably a more cunning lover discovered the clumsy game and took revenge according to the saying: “MORS TUA VITA MEA!”

The vast eighteenth-century complex of Villa Balladoro stands in the heart of Povegliano Veronese, enveloped in a captivating historical atmosphere. The villa welcomes visitors with a spacious courtyard leading to the elegant central manor house, beyond which the evocative park unfolds.

The layout features an elegant horseshoe shape, and the façade of the residence - once belonging to the Balladoro family - rises three storeys high, culminating in a majestic gable that bears the family coat of arms, flanked by two refined ornamental vases. In the central section, the rusticated portal and the upper opening with its arched pediment draw the eye, while two side plaques commemorate the distinguished guests who once stayed in the villa.

Highlights of the villa: The interiors feature frescoes on the ground and first floors, as well as in the park’s exedra. The villa includes a 23,700-square-metre park with centuries-old trees, statues, and a fountain. Inside the villa are the Archaeological Museum and the Historical Library of Povegliano Veronese. Moreover, the municipal public library is located on the first floor.

Villa Carlotti

Built in the 15th century as a country retreat for the lombard Vimercati family and enlarged in the second half of the 16th century, the house passed to the hands of the wealthy and well-known Carlotti family in 1601 thanks to an exchange between families. The villa was completed and embellished with a beautiful garden and statues in 1632. In 1635, the family received their royal title from the Grand Duke of Tuscany and they started to undertake major building works to renovate and expand the Villa. It was officialy recognised as a Palace due to its size and the number of cultivated fields around it. In 1920, Francesca of Canossa decided to give it to the local community, however we had to wait until 1937, when the Villa was finally bought by the town council of Caprino Veronese and since 1952 it houses the town council offices.

Museum

The ground floor of the elegant Palazzo Carlotti houses the city museum, which is the result of the wish of professors Solinas and Marangoni and their group of researchers, to have a permanent place to display local historical artifacts. These were collected over the years and range from prehistoric times to the present day. The museum includes a section with objects from WWI. The most remarkable room is the “Sala dei Sogni” with its grotesque frescoes, but the highlight of the collection is the 14th century “Compianto” (mourning sculpture) founded in the ancient church of Santo Sepolcro in Caprino.

Villa Draghi was built on a pre-existing 17th-century building as a private villa, demolished to construct the current complex in 1848, featuring the villa-castle style spread over two floors and a basement. Over time, it lost valuable decorative elements, fixtures, and statues due to neglect and the lack of care from the Municipality that was supposed to safeguard them.

The Park and the Villa are located on the slope of one of the hundred hills that characterize the Euganean Hills, 10 km from Padua and 40 km from Venice. The rustic annexes are found at the foot of Monte Alto and at the entrance gate of the Euganean Hills Regional Park.

Patches of woodland surround small clearings crossed by paths that offer a variety of perspective effects along the way: scenes with wide views alternate with brief glimpses that open and close among trees, meadows, and bushes with changing rapidity.

The Villa is situated at the top of a hill, from which one can enjoy a splendid view of the natural amphitheater of the plain dotted with inhabited areas, watercourses, thermal springs, and agricultural land. This view is made possible by the visual permeability of the area in front, which is currently free of buildings and visual barriers. Behind the Villa, the mountain continues its ascent, providing a backdrop.

The Villa Draghi complex is publicly owned by the Municipality of Montegrotto Terme, which acquired it from the Jesuits of Venice in 1972. The Jesuits had received it as a donation from Giovannina Draghi (the last private owner since 1962, after whom it is named).

Villa Mocenigo, Garzoni, Martini is a Venetian villa whose construction began in the mid-fifteenth century on behalf of Lazzaro Mocenigo.

The original nucleus, currently identifiable with the noble part, was a hunting lodge in typically Venetian style, consisting of a large central hall flanked by two smaller rooms, respectively to the east and west. From the west side, a grand staircase led to the upper floor, where the bedrooms were located.

The rooms intended for the servants and horses were located about 50 meters to the west, in a rustic building with a well that still exists. In the seventeenth century, the lodge was expanded, connecting the buildings and transforming into a "house for stabling."

In the mid-eighteenth century, the architect Francesco Maria Preti from Castelfranco Veneto intervened on the entire complex, rendering its structure homogeneous while preserving, in the façade, the stylistic differences of the three building bodies.

The current owners of the villa are descendants of the marriages between the Mocenigo and Garzoni families, and later between the Garzoni and Martini families, and it was also the setting for important political decisions of the Serenissima.

The interiors are largely covered in marmorino. A dining room is decorated with an original nineteenth-century pavilion fresco, depicting striped white and blue draperies, creating the illusion of an opening towards an external garden. Other rooms feature more modest friezes.

The villa overlooks a centuries-old park, characterized by a small wood, the last survivor of the forests that once covered the lands of Castello di Godego. To the north of the complex is the barchessa designed by F.M. Preti, with a portico supported by Tuscan columns, and the chapel of the Sacred Heart (formerly dedicated to Saint John), which features a curious false entrance facing the main road of the village.

The Barchessa of Villa Pola, also known as “il Barcon,” is a splendid complex designed by Giorgio Massari. It stands in a five-hectare countryside, enclosed by walls, partially crossed by a road that surrounds its perimeter and along which the current entrance is located: a gate flanked by two large windows with characteristic wrought iron bars.

By walking along a short avenue, one accesses the porch, characterized by majestic columns. The building is oriented from north to south and, once, at the end of the porch was a paved courtyard – known as the “selese” – used for spreading small quantities of wheat or corn to dry in the sun.

The Venetian villa, owned by the Pomini family, was transformed in the late 1990s, at the initiative of a group of entrepreneurs, into a brewery with an attached venue for serving. After thirteen years of operation, the brewery ceased its activities, but the brewery has continued to operate and is still active today.

Today, the Barchessa is in excellent condition. The brewery, equipped with one of the most advanced systems created by the historic company Velo, is running at full capacity and produces various types of beers.

Inside the villa, one can admire the wonderful fresco painted in 1789 by Giambattista Canal, located on the ceiling of the central staircase. The centuries-old mulberries enhance the large garden that borders the Barchessa.

The structure is located just a few kilometers from Castelfranco Veneto, from the Brion Tomb in San Vito di Altivole, and from the Sile Springs in Cavasagra di Vedelago.