Once again, our day began with a smile
Isn't this place great?
After breakfast, we headed towards Piazzolo sul Brenta with Dennis once again behind the wheel.
It didn't take long for us to arrive there, but the place was packed with people as there was a huge flea market taking place in the town. Just about every available space was filled with white tents and tables displaying just about anything imaginable. It was crazy!
We wove our way through the maze of displayed wares, and finally reached our intended destination: The Villa Contarini.
I pulled out my camera to take a photo, and immediately realized that I had charged the battery, but forgot to put it back in my camera. What a disappointment!
Morena was quick to offer me the use of her camera, which I was happy to accept. Unfortunately, her camera card is not compatible with my transfer device, so I have no way of transferring her photos.
Luckily, Marty was busy taking his own photos with his phone, so I have a few images that I can share.
The Villa is quite impressive as it is surrounded by a very large English landscape park complete with a lake and walkways lined with tall trees. I took a great photo of Marty standing under them, but I suppose that you'll just have to take my word on that one.
Here you can see me standing at the gates to the property.
A canal runs along the front walkway.
and the front of the building is lovely with a fountain and beautiful flowers
complete with an entertaining statue that featured golden wings upon its back.
This history of this place is rather interesting.
It is believed that the Villa was built around 1546 on the remains of a castle built in 1000 by the Da Carrara family.
It was purchased by a nobel from Padua by the name of Carraresi and eventually inherited by the Contarini family. It was a rural family residence until Marco Contarini extended the building in the mid 1600's making it more like a Royal Palace.
Over time, the villa suffered neglect for many years, (although the information does not explain why) until the Camerini family returned it to its former splendor.
Yet again, the villa was neglected until a man named Giordono Ghirardi purchased it in 1969. When he died, in 2005, the Villa became the property of the local administration and since then it has been maintained.
Upon entering the building we learned that we could view the interior.
The bad news was that the tour would only be 30 minutes long, was limited to 20 people, and was only given in Italian.
The good news was that the admission price was half price. Considering that we had our own Italian translator, it was obvious to me that this was a win-win situation for us, and we signed up for the noon tour. When all was said and done, we all agreed that 30 minutes was just about enough for all of us.
The tour began in the auditorium which is also known as the "chitarra rovesciata" (translated that means upturned guitar). It is called such because it is constructed in 3 elves with an orchestra level on the second floor and an oval hole in the ceiling above the balcony.
The layout resulted in the ceiling acting like the sound resonator of a giant guitar, allowing the orchestra music on the balcony to be amplified and flow through the aperture, filling the auditorium. How clever is that?
The limited tour took us through one wing of the palace. Each room was decorated a bit differently with each involving a different theme. There was the Hunting room where one might imagine that they were part of a hunt in the 18th century, complete with flying pheasants painted on the ceiling, an Arts and Science room featuring scenes representing many facets of those subjects, and a faux mosaic room which was filled with painted walls that mimicked mosaic. Interestingly enough, the next room that we entered actually featured genuine mosaic with hundreds of tiles pressed into the plaster to make a beautiful mural on all 4 walls.
Our trip upstairs led to a beautiful white room known as the Mirror Room.
No photos were permitted inside, but I was able to find a couple features of this Villa online. Here is a photo of the Mirror room
Don't you just love it?
And, here is another online photos that features the ball room. No description could possibly do it justice.
As I mentioned, 30 minutes was plenty of time for us to see what the Villa had to offer. Marty and I were thrilled that our friends had decided to take us to see this unique palace.
We headed back to Cittadella where we enjoyed a lovely lunch and decided to spend some time relaxing in the afternoon before attending evening mass.
On our way back to the hotel, we passed this awesome car parked in front of the church, more than likely the transportation of the bride and groom who would be getting married at 3:00.
Couldn't resist sharing that photo with you. How awesome is that?
As planned, we headed to the church at 6:30 p.m. for mass at the Cathedral of SS Prosdocimo and Donato. This was the first time that I had heard of either saint and I have no information to share regarding either of them.
Walking through the door, I immediately fell in love with the place. The Church organist was extremely talented and the Duomo resonated the music so beautifully. The homily was way too long, but when the cantor began singing Panus Angelicus after communion, time just stood still as I closed my eyes and found myself lost in the beauty of the moment.
When we walked out of Mass, it felt like we were in Scotland, a bit chilly with rain pouring down. No worries, though. We had our umbrellas and headed to a little restaurant where we had a table waiting for us, thanks to Luciana, our hotel proprietor who had made reservations for us earlier in the day.
At first, we didn't quite know what to expect since the place was filled with wall to wall "young" people. But the waiter headed us back to a very comfortable table for 4 where we settled in immediately.
Dinner was excellent and the camaraderie perfect.
The music was really quite entertaining, and when I realized that I was listening to "Another one bites the dust" and looked up to see Morena sitting next to this painting
how could I possibly resist capturing that moment?
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