La Rotonda

Palladio’s Villa Capra is better known as La Rotonda. No matter how you look at it, this villa is a show-stopper: the namesake dome caps a square base, with colonnaded facades on all four sides. This is one of Palladio’s most admired creations, inspiring villa variations across Europe and the USA, including Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (La Rotonda’s current owner, Mario di Valmarana, is a retired University of Virginia architecture professor). Inside, the circular central hall is frescoed from the walls to the soaring cupola with trompe l’œil frescoes. Out front, you can catch bus 8 (€1.50) back to Vicenza.