Tom`s travels: Villa dei Vescovi and Valbona Castle (05/05/2024)

On a sunny day, we decided to head to the Euganean Hills and visit some sites. Our first stop was the Villa dei Vescovi, a Renaissance-style, rural palatial home initially built for the archbishops of Padua and now owned by the Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI). Once we had found parking nearby we headed inside after paying the ticket. As it's part of the monuments managed by FAI both my brother and mom had their cards granting them access while for me they bought another yearly pass. We entered the beautiful garden and from there admired the building in front of us. The villa was erected between 1535 and1542 by the architect Giovanni Maria Falconetto as a summer residence for Padua's bishops but it is believed there was some intervention by the famous Giulio Romano as well. The building initially contained a rectangular courtyard with two wings and an open loggia on the ground floor, while the piano nobile had an open loggia looking down to the valley. In the second half of the eighteenth century, the distribution of the interior spaces of the piano nobile was changed: the inner court was closed and four side rooms with a central hall were created according to the classic floor plan of the later Venetian villas. The interior was frescoed in late 1543 by the Flemish painter Lambert Sustris. From the Italian-style garden in the back, we then went around the main building and headed down the valley where the rest of the villa's park is set. Here are many rows of vineyards which give the site an even more idyllic view. Back at the villa we entered it and started exploring the rooms at the piano nobile. We first walked through the eastern loggia with its beautiful frescoes and an amazing view of the countryside around. From the loggia, we then went to the hall which was a result of the 18th-century refurbishment as it replaced the central courtyard and featured stuccoes instead of frescoes. Next up were the antechamber and bishop's chamber, two rooms set up using some of the furnishings already present in the villa with the aim of evoking the domestic environments of the bishop's domus. The next room was the dining room, originally two separate rooms it was then turned into its current purpose by the Olcese family who owned the villa in the 20th century. It features large parts of surviving frescoes representing the myth of Orpheus and the myth of Apollo and Marsia. From the room, we walked over to the western loggia and after admiring its frescoes and beautiful view we entered another small room. The putto's room featured beautiful illusionistic frescoes on marine horizons and landscapes with ruins, country houses, and small figures and obviously the fresco of a putto in the bottom left corner as a foreground contrast to the rest of the views. Next up was the larger ancient figures room, with the most intact wall decorations in the villa. There are figures in ancient costumes and oratorical poses as well as the upper frieze featuring trophies, vases, armor and weapons, and landscapes. Next door were the fireplace room and the study, originally combined into a single space. It featured furniture used by the Olcese family but the frescoes were those from the 16th century featuring faux-tapestries motifs and festons held by naked figures, birds, and other things. Finally to complete the round were the room of the pisan lions and the bathroom. The name is due to the rampant lions appearing repeatedly on the upper part of the wall and in the coat of arms of the Pisani family, whose member Bishop Francesco Pisani commissioned the construction of the villa. Along the walls are more frescoes of landscapes, faux niches with statues, and trophies, and on the frieze more garlands and sacrificial scenes and scenes with divinities. The bathroom features old furniture which the Olcese family used including two commodes from the 18th century. After the visit to the villa, it was time for lunch. We headed to the Trattoria Pizzeria Liviana, right across the gardens, and there I had a tasty bigoli with duck sauce. Heading back to the car we then drove across the hills and reached the Valbona Castle. This mighty medieval fortress dominates the plain west of Mount Lozzo, one of the volcanic hills of the Euganean hills, and was probably erected in the 13th century. Rather than an actual castle with a court, this was a fort designed to house a garrison of ten or twelve armed men: four knights, eight foot soldiers with a captain, and a certain number of servants for the normal operation of the structure. Today the scenic castle with its hexagonal towers, main tower in the center, and crenellated walls all around, represents one of the best-preserved structures in the area. There is now a restaurant inside and once we arrived we also saw a small gathering of stalls and music was set in the garden surrounding it. To our surprise we also saw a group of musicians singing country music, doing line dancing, and with a flag of the confederate states of the United States of America. After that surprise, we entered the castle and checked out the small inner courtyard. We then headed upstairs to the battlements to admire the nice view of the surrounding landscape. Then back down we circled the structure and admired it from the west side where it even features a drawbridge and was a great scenic spot. It was then time to go so after reaching the car we eventually drove home.