The River Brenta and its villas

PROGRAM

• At 10.00am: Meeting in Malcontenta and (optional: entrance fee € 10,00 p.p.) guided visit to VILLA FOSCARI  known as "LA MALCONTENTA", designed by Andrea Palladio in 1560. Its interiors are completely frescoed by Giambattista Franco and Giambattista Zelotti. Once onboard the tour will slowly continue along the placid canal, admiring the majestic Villas and mansions of the Riviera del Brenta. 

• At 11.30am: Arrival in Mira, optional visit to  VILLA BARCHESSA VALMARANA (entrance fee 6,00 € p.p.), which houses many paintings from the Venetian Baroque School of Michelangelo Schiavoni, or to VILLA WIDMANN (entrance fee 6,00 € p.p.), sumptuous residence dating to the  XVIII century, designed by Andrea Tirali and frescoes by Giuseppe Angeli.

• At 12.30am : Lunch onboard. Fish menu to taste traditional Venetian recipies of the region.

• At 2.30pm : Stop at the town of Dolo for a visit to the antique Squero (the place where boats were built and launched), and to the water Mills, dating back to the XVI century, which significantly testify to one of most ancient cultural traditions of this land.

• At 4.00pm: Arrival in the town of Strà. Visit to VILLA PISANI (entrance fee 10,00 € + 1,00 € p.p. booking right; for young under 18 and elderly over 65 entrance is free + 1,00 € as booking right). This Villa, known as the little Versailles, whose main building was designed by architect Francesco Maria Preti in 1735, still preserves magnificent decorations at its interior, painted by the most important Venetian painters of the XVIII century. The spectacular ceiling at the main hall still shows the famous fresco “Gloria dei Pisani”, by G.B. Tiepolo. Visit to the magnificent park with the famous hedge labyrinth where the writer Gabriele D’Annunzio set the love plays between Stelio Effrena and Foscarina, the protagonists of his masterpiece “Il Fuoco”. 

• At 5.30pm: End of the journey