There is nothing better than the sweeping background of Villa Ducale to meet Elisabetta Fogarin, co-owner and president of the association Consorzio Ville Venete. Her eyes reveal a true passion for her job, her land and the Arts.
Riviera del Brenta is the only place where you can find a series of historical Villas that line a river, il Naviglio del Brenta, so elegantly. Thanks to the Aristocrats and wealthy Venetians, that spent their holidays in their jaw-dropping, riverside country houses had been designed by some of the greatest architects and landscapists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Villas hosted both business and leisure travellers and offered the perfect location for outdoor games, strolls through glorious gardens and sumptuous dinner-parties. In the evening their magnificent facades often hid piquant adventures and gambling games. Every little detail of the landscape is evocative and magical, from the elegant nature to the complex architecture. And what is most impressive is that every villa is different from the others and has its own one of a kind beauty that truly represents the area’s artistic heritage. The area presents itself with a unique mix of landscapes with an undeniable artistic, historical and scenic value, and the Villas that blend in perfectly with their surroundings tell tales of their past residents and of the glorious Venetian history. Today, as then, the varied and complex architecture offers to residents and tourists of the Riviera an always new glimpse, an emotion, a magic poetry.
The nonprofit organisation Consorzio Ville Venete was founded by several villas proprietors in order to safeguard cultural heritage and promote activities whilst undertaking development and promotion of tourism. Thanks to the effort of volunteers some of the villas have now been turned into hotels, bed and breakfasts, farm-houses and restaurants; some of them host events, meetings and weddings whereas some others offer the perfecrt setting for exhibitions that draw hundreds of visitors.
