The playwright Carlo Goldoni would write of the Baglioni family that they possessed a delightful rural villa called Mazzanzago “and perhaps there is no more pleasant and charming place”.

The property takes its present name from a Bergamo family who first chose this site for their summer retreat. The house then may well have been that built by Antonio Lombardo in 1663; when Antonio Lombardo died, the villa had passed to his brother Alvise, who had it completed (one can see what it looked like in a painting by Luca Carlevarijs). When the place became the property of the Baglioni family, the villa was transformed into an imposing palazzo, but still retained its role as the core of a farming estate.
The decoration of the piano nobile was one of the first fresco commissions undertaken by a very young Giambattista Tiepolo, one of the greatest painters in eighteenth-century Europe. Recounting the myth of Phaeton, the scenes he created marked the emergence of a new language in Venetian painting, which would remain dominant right up to the advent of Neoclassicism. Later in the eighteenth century, Antonio Zucchi decorated the ceilings in the ground-floor rooms: seven fresco tondi and a range of stucco work.

In Stra, not far from Venice and Padua, along the Brenta River, near Villa Pisani, stands the architectural complex of the 17th century called Villa Foscarini Rossi. According to aristocratic customs, the Foscarini family sent to call famous architects like Vincenzo Scamozzi, Francesco Contini, Giuseppe Jappelli, painters and decorators, such as Pietro Liberi and Domenico de Bruni, entrusted them with the task of creating and decorating a house that emphasized the importance of the family.

After a careful restoration, which has enhanced the pure architectural lines and the important frescoes, the entire complex of the Villa and Foresteria has been opened to the public, with the aim of making it alive as it had been conceived and wanted by the noble Foscarini.

The halls of the Villa have become a museum, while those of the Foresteria host conferences, meetings, receptions, concerts, exhibitions. In fact, the Villa houses the “Museum of footwear”, which collects the most representative models of the production of Rossimoda, which for years has been making the shoes of the most famous Italian, French and American designers.

The first news about the complex that today is called Villa Benvenuti dates back to the early 16th century, when the Venetian patron Alvise Cornaro inherited from his uncle Alvise Angeglieri the estate on the hill overlooking Este. Cornaro decided not only to create a building but also to work on the garden to establish an open-air theater in the Greek style.

He entrusted the task to the Veronese architect Gian Maria Falconetto, of whose intervention the triumphal arch remains.

At the beginning of the 1700s, the property passed to the Farsetti family. The enlargement of what was Cornaro's small building into a form similar to the current one is probably due to the Farsetti.

The arrangement of the Park in its current forms was initiated in the mid-1800s by Adolfo Benvenuti: it is likely that he entrusted the task to Giuseppe Jappelli. In addition to the park, the intervention also involved the pine forest above, which constitutes a peculiar profile of the city of Este.

Excellences of the villa: Triumphal arch attributed to Falconetto; Park whose architecture is attributed to Giuseppe Jappelli Villa, greenhouse, and stables.

Villa Caprera is a beautiful residence of eighteenth-century origin. Built at the behest of the noblewoman Foscarini, the house is situated near the Muson stream, which still brings water to the nearby villages.

In the 19th century, the new owner, a general in Garibaldi's army, gave the building the name "Caprera", to remember the place where Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian hero, spent the last years of his life.

The following century, it became the country house of the rich Ubaldo family, distillers from Veneto. A very important family among its members were also Knights of Malta.

During the two great world wars, the house became a military barracks, used in particular by the Germans.

Today it is the ideal venue for weddings, theatrical performances, parties and public and private events. Around the historic house there is a large park, where you can stroll.

Trees, flowers, statues embellish and create a real magic. There are also animals of small and large sizes like horses, ducks,rabbits.

Villa Pojana Miniscalchi-Erizzo-Bettero-Chiarelli was commissioned to the architect Andrea Palladio by the Vicentine Bonifacio Pojana, a member of a family closely tied to the Republic of San Marco. The project, conceived by Palladio in the late 1540s, was completed in 1563, although only one barchessa (outbuilding) from the original design was actually built. The villa was finished in the following century, when the descendants of Bonifacio Pojana had an additional building constructed on the right side, with window mouldings inspired by Palladio's façade design.

The main floor features a large rectangular hall, covered by a barrel vault, which dominates the entire space. Surrounding it are smaller rooms, each covered by different types of vaults, evoking the symbolism of ancient thermal structures and creating a sense of continuity with classical antiquity.

Since 1996, Villa Pojana has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, along with the other Palladian villas of Veneto, recognized for their outstanding historical and architectural value.

Excellences of the villa: Benedictine church of 1000 Frescoes del Falconetto (1400) Entrance portal (1501) Well and barchesse of 1500 The crenellated facades of the Villa (1500) The halls of the parties The monumental attic with 360° panoramic view Brolo, garden and courtyard

Excellences of the context: Ancient parish church of Pressana, Villa Grimani in Pressana, Villa Cainacqua in Caselle di Pressana, Archaeological Museum of Cologna Veneta, Walled City of Montagnana, Monastery of San Salvaro, Castle of Bevilacqua.

A masterpiece of the Venetian Renaissance, set in a large park, it houses frescoes by P.Veronese and G. Zelotti, inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses.

OPEN every first Sunday of the month from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the Mercatino
GUIDED TOURS: market day: 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. or by appointment daily, minimum 4 people

Historical notes
The house on which the Roberti family built their palace was built on the ruins of the Macaruffo castle, of which the medieval tower, later used as a colombara, remains.
In the "Palace," the exteriors, loggia, hall, and entrance hall were frescoed by Zelotti, Fasolo, and Paolo Veronese, with depictions of mythological scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses and with figures representing the Virtues and Giants.
In the recently discovered frescoes on the upper floor of the Villa, there is a curious interplay between the external landscape and the frescoed one.

The Park and the Forest
The Forest, recently restored, thanks to the help of the Municipality of Brugine, can now be visited. Inside there are botanical and dedicated paths for children.
The 1842 Guide to Padua and its Province, points out that the garden of Marquis Domenico de Lazara in Brugine "was among the first in our province to set the example of the gardens that are called English."
In reality, the actual English park must be dated to 1830, that is, when some of the most important Jappellian gardens, such as Treves de' Bonfili in Padua, Cittadella,Vigodarzere in Saonara, and Meneghini in Battaglia Terme, had already been designed and were being built. Much of the original compositional arrangement has disappeared, the extent of the park area and the brolo, in which the greenhouses and fishpond, covered by the hazel grove, still remain.
There are still scattered here and there among the greenery, relics of ancient brick artifacts, two statues of cherubs, and in the middleground area, the tombstone commissioned by Giuseppe Salom.
The special selection of roses, which can be found along the Villa Park and gardens, deserve attention.

The Villa and the Roberti family
Villa Roberti bears witness to the origins and splendor of the Venetian pictorial and architectural Renaissance.
The Roberti family was one of the most influential in Padua because of the prestige of its diplomatic appointments and the enormous wealth accumulated through its activity as bankers.

Around 1544, Canon Girolamo commissioned architect Andrea da Valle to build the monumental complex.
Andrea da Valle, a contemporary of Palladio and Falconetto, famous for his work on Santa Giustina in Prato della Valle and the Cathedral of Padua, finished the work in 1553. At the same time a group of painters from Verona - Zelotti, Fasolo and others - around 1550, was called in to fresco the exterior walls and interior halls of the Villa.

The Maccaruffo Castle Tower
The 14th-century tower along with the well in front of the barchessa are all that remains of the Maccaruffo Castle. Traces of frescoes with the Carraresi emblem are still visible on the tower. In later centuries the tower was used as a colombara, but thanks to recent restoration it has been restored to its original beauty,and is currently used as an apartment.

The barchessa
The barchessa dates back to the late 15th century. Inside there are two large Renaissance fireplaces, the portico cadenced by eight arches rests on columns softened by capitals with the Roberti coat of arms.

The frescoes of the Renaissance
The Fresco Paintings of the halls and exterior walls of the Villa are certainly among the earliest works executed by the Veronese group of artists.
The Roberti family, portrayed in the two scenes of life in the loggia, welcomes the visitor who, through the vestibule of the Grotesques and Landscapes (the Lagoon and the Euganean Hills) enters the sumptuous Salone del Piano Nobile, characterized by its Sansovinian-decorated ceiling. Zelotti, frescoed eight mythological scenes telling of the loves between gods and mortals. The figures of the Giants and Virtues in the superstructures and the episode of Venus and Adonis turn out to be interesting.
On the upper floor we find the Studiolo, decorated by the frescoes Amor sacro and Amor profano executed by Zelotti and Veronese artists.
The faux mesh tapestry, in imitation of a brocaded damask, gold and silver, that decorates the other rooms represents the first example of a series of replicas of the design module that Paolo Veronese would use in painted textiles in his own canvases beginning in 1552.
On the ground floor can be visited the ancient kitchen with the fireplace, and the floor still with the original slope, which was used to drain water, and the well room with the foundations of the medieval castle and cistern.

The Villa and Park Miari de Cumani complex, a Villa-Castle with an attached 19th-century Romantic Park, is located to the south of the Province of Padua and the Euganean Hills, immersed in a vast agricultural panorama.

The neo-Gothic and Venetian style Villa-Castle has medieval origins: the first written testimony from the 14th century tells of a tower house, the original settlement of the Cumani family, who still inhabit the villa, having arrived at the estate in the second half of the 13th century. Over the centuries, the villa has transformed from a large agricultural residence to a noble and bourgeois villa: in the 1970s, Antonia Miari de Cumani decided to make ten rooms of the villa accessible, which house numerous relics and memories of the families and personalities who have lived on the estate. Room by room, one discovers the most authentic local history through writer ancestors, war heroes, influential politicians, and astute entrepreneurs, such as Giacomo Miari de Cumani, the first automobile entrepreneur in Italy.


The Park, which covers an area of eight hectares, dates back to 1856, when Osvaldo Torquato Paoletti, a landscape architect from the Jappelli school, was commissioned by Count Felice Miari to design a romantic style park and an English garden, replacing the pre-existing Brolo. Inspired by a medieval legend recounting the abduction of Elena Fontana by the Witch Gilda of the Desert set in 1180, Paoletti created the Miari de Cumani Park. The Park, with its multiple and evocative natural settings amplified or softened by the light, shadows, or weather conditions of the day, is capable of evoking truly extraordinary emotions in the visitor. Inside, immersed in nature, there are also particular architectural structures including a Nymphaeum, a neoclassical temple dedicated to Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour, and a Swiss Cottage. Also present are rare specimens of Taxodium distichum, Fagus sylvatica, and Black Austrian Pine, as well as centuries-old trees.