To appreciate both gardening and Venetian-style social engineering, stop just west of Oriago at Villa Widmann Rezzonico Foscari. Originally owned by Persian-Venetian nobility, the 18th-century villa captures the Brenta’s last days of rococo decadence, with Murano sea-monster chandeliers and a frescoed grand ballroom with upper viewing gallery. Head to the gallery to reach the upstairs ladies’ gambling parlour where, according to local lore, villas were once gambled away in high-stakes games.
Villa Widmann Rezzonico Foscari
The Veneto
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
9.42 MILES
With a profusion of domes and more than 8000 sq metres of luminous mosaics, Venice's cathedral is unforgettable. It was founded in the 9th century to…
9.45 MILES
Holding pride of place on the waterfront, this pretty Gothic confection may be an unlikely setting for the political and administrative seat of a great…
13.14 MILES
Padua's version of the Sistine Chapel, the Cappella degli Scrovegni houses one of Italy's great Renaissance masterpieces – a striking cycle of Giotto…
8.87 MILES
Venice's historic gallery traces the development of Venetian art from the 14th to 19th centuries, with works by all of the city's artistic superstars. The…
8.78 MILES
In medieval times this part of Cannaregio housed a getto (foundry), but it was as the designated Jewish quarter from the 16th to 19th centuries that the…
Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
9.19 MILES
Baldassare Longhena's magnificent basilica is prominently positioned near the entrance to the Grand Canal, its white stones, exuberant statuary and high…
8.77 MILES
Baroque dreams come true at this Baldassare Longhena–designed Grand Canal palazzo (mansion), where a marble staircase leads to a vast gilded ballroom and…
9.04 MILES
After losing her father on the Titanic, heiress Peggy Guggenheim became one of the great collectors of the 20th century. Her palatial canalside home,…
Nearby The Veneto attractions
0.07 MILES
Debuting on the riviera in the 17th century, Villa Barchessa Valmarana was commissioned by Vicenza's aristocratic Valmarana family. You'll find them…
2.72 MILES
The most romantic Brenta villa, the Palladio-designed, Unesco-listed Villa Foscari (built 1555–60) got its nickname La Malcontenta from a grande dame of…
5.72 MILES
Aiming to put Mestre on the map, this multimedia museum tells the story of Italy in the 20th century through imaginative interactive exhibits involving…
6.92 MILES
To keep hard-partying Venetian nobles in line, Doge Alvise Pisani provided a Versailles-like reminder of who was in charge. The 1774, 114-room Villa…
7.16 MILES
Well-heeled Venetians wouldn’t have dreamed of decamping to the Brenta without their favourite cobblers, sparking a local tradition of shoemaking. Today,…
6. Chiesa di San Nicolò dei Mendicoli
8.27 MILES
Other churches might be grander, but none is more quintessentially Venetian than this 12th-century church with a history of service to the poor. Its…
7. Chiesa di San Raffaele Arcangelo
8.42 MILES
The neighbours called, and they want their grime back: when centuries of accumulated dirt were removed from the stone angels above the portals of…
8.42 MILES
Avant-garde Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s 2008 bridge over the Grand Canal has been called many things: a fish tail, a glass tongue, pleasingly…