Venezia Trip Overview
Feel like a modern Venetian aristocrat and visit the exquisite Villas along the Riviera biking along along the Brenta river from Venice.
For centuries summer officially started in June with a flotilla of fashionable Venetians headed for their summer residence along the banks of the Brenta river. There were once 3000 villas in the Venetian hinterland, built between the 15th ad 18th century built by aristocratic families who set up fabolous country estates, enhancing their incomes with farming and indulging in wild parties. You will reach the brenta river with a comfortable vaporetto ride from Venice, where you will find a rental bike to discover the Brenta river and visit some of these marvellous villas, including the Palladio’s exquisite La Malcontenta, Villa Widmann Rezzonico Foscari, Villa Barchessa Valmarana and the Versailles-like Grand Villa Pisani. The bike drop off will be flexible, allowing you to get comfotably get back to Venice by bus.
Additional Info
Duration: 5 hours
Starts: Venezia, Italy
Trip Category: Day Trips & Excursions >> Day Trips
Explore Venezia Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Venezia, Veneto, Italy
Feel like a modern Venetian aristocrat and visit the exquisite Villas along the Riviera biking along along the Brenta river from Venice.
For centuries summer officially started in June with a flotilla of fashionable Venetians headed for their summer residence along the banks of the Brenta river. There were once 3000 villas in the Venetian hinterland, built between the 15th ad 18th century built by aristocratic families who set up fabolous country estates, enhancing their incomes with farming and indulging in wild parties. You will reach the brenta river with a comfortable vaporetto ride from Venice, where you will find a rental bike to discover the Brenta river and visit some of these marvellous villas, including the Palladio’s exquisite La Malcontenta, Villa Widmann Rezzonico Foscari, Villa Barchessa Valmarana and the Versailles-like Grand Villa Pisani. The bike drop off will be flexible, allowing you to get comfotably get back to Venice by bus.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Fondamenta Zattere, Fondamente Zattere, Venice Italy
We will meet at “Zattere” in Dorsoduro, a curious name that has its origin in the past, when the tree truncks from the closest mountains to Venice arrive with rafts (in Italian “zattere”) to the lagoon, along the Brenta river.
The “Fondamenta” has a unique location. It overlooks the Giudecca and the treasures of this island, for exemple the church of “ The Santissimo Redentore”, designed by Andrea Palladio in 1557.
Duration: 5 minutes
Stop At: Fusina, 30176 Venice, Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy
We will reach by water bus Fusina, where historically the mouth of the Brenta river is located. When Venetians set out from Piazza San Marco for the Brenta, many of them would step aboard the commodious barge il Burchiello, which was drawn along the tow-path by a team of hores. Goethe arrived on the lagoon in this fashion in 1786.
Since we love biking, we will start our journey by bike from here: the bike rental cost is up to 25 Euro, including the extra charges for pick up at Fusina and drop off along the Brenta river. Bikes will be booked and ready for you!
Duration: 15 minutes
Stop At: Villa Foscari, Via dei Turisti, 9, 30034 Mira VE, Italy
The most romantic Brenta Villa, the Palladio designed 1555-1560 Villa Foscari got its nickname “la Malcontenta” from a grand dame of the Foscari family who was reputedly exiled here for cheating on her husband – though these bright, highly sociable salon hardly constitute a punishment. The villa was abandoned for years, but Giovanni Zelotti’s frescoes have been restored to daydream-inducing splendour. Palladio glorious facade faces the river, with soaring Ionic columns capped by a classical tympanum that draw the eye and the spirits upward.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Villa Widmann Rezzonico Foscari, Via Nazionale 420, 30034, Mira Italy
This Villa will let us appreciate both gardening and Venetian style social engineering.
Originally owned by Persian-Venetian nobility, the 18th-century villa captures the Brenta’s last days of rococo decadence, with Murano sea-monster chadeliers and frescoed grand ballroom with upper viewing gallery
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Villa Valmarana, Via Valmarana 11, 30034, Mira Italy
What you will see is just one of the wings of the original 17th century villa, as the main structure was torn down in 19th century to avoid paying luxury taxes. This wing was soon upgraded from a simple boathouse to a guesthouse when the Valmaranas found they couldn’t accomodate all their summer visitors. Now the double height dining room with its glorious frescoes by Michelangelo Schiavoni in the 18th century serves mainly as conference center, something a comedown from the days when Prospero Valmarana hosted the bey of Tripoli.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Museo Nazionale di Villa Pisani, Via Doge Pisani, 7, Stra Italy
To keep hard-partying Venetian nobles in line, Doge Alvise Pisani provided a Versailles-like reminder of who was in charge. The 1774 Villa Pisani Nazionale is surrounded by huge gardens, a labyrinthine hedge-maze and pools to reflect the doge’s glory.
And if the walls of the 114 rooms could talk, they would name-drop shamelessly. Here you will find the gaming rooms where Venice’s powerful Pisani family racked up debts that forced them to sell the family mansion to Napoleon; the grand bathroom with a tiny wooden throne used by Napoleon during his 1807 reign as King of Italy; a sagging bed where Vittorio Emanuele II apparently tossed and turned as the head of newly independent Italy; and, in historical irony, the grand reception hall where Mussolini and Hitler met for the first time in 1934 under Tiepolo’s ceiling depicting the Geniuses of Peace.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Dolo, Dolo, Veneto
We will end our our tour in Dolo, a very picturesque village, located halfway between Padua and Venice. For this reason the town used to be a stopping stage of the coach to the embarkation place of the Serenissima and it was for a long time the heart of the economy and craftsmanship of Riviera del Brenta. Here were mills, post offices, locks and the only ‘squero’ where boats were built.
Here we will drop our bikes and take a bus back to Venice
Duration: 30 minutes
