Archive for 'Veneto'

Verona in Veneto in the north-east of Italy, is one of the most charming towns in the country, renowned for its beauty, ties to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and its summer opera season. A short distance from Lake Garda and full of shops and restaurants and with a historic medieval town centre, it is absolutely packed full of things to see and do. The town has Roman origins and was an important part of the empire and the remains of the period dot the landscape with the biggest impact being made by the Arena. Now the Arena houses the operas each summer that the town has become known for, drawing crowds of up to 14,000 each year from all over the world.

A temporary bridge is constructed in Venice each year in July. This tradition goes back to the sixteenth century and is part of the Festa del Redentore, or Festival of the Redeemer. The bridge is built over the Giudecca Canal allowing access to the Church of the Redentore. This takes place on the third Saturday of July when there is a great party with feasting followed by fireworks and religious celebrations held on the Sunday with a gondola regata finishing off the weekend. Carnival, which takes place in February, is an event that is largely recreated for tourists but the Festa del Redentore is still an authentically local event and is very important to the people of Venice. Why not find a holiday rental in Venice and see it all for yourself?

The Villa Pisani at Stra was built in the 18th century for the wealthy Venetian Pisani family to celebrate the election of Alvise Pisani as Doge (ruler of Venice). Designed by Francesco Maria Preti, though commissioned from Girolamo Fringimelica, work was begun in 1735. It is much more formal and imposing than most Venetian villas and presents an extraordinary façade rich in elaborate ornamentation with festoons, caryatids, putti and statues. The property did not spend long in the hands of the Pisani family; it was bought by Napoleon in 1807 and given to his adoptive son, the Viceroy of Italy. After a period in the possession of the Savoy family, it became the property of the Italian state.

The great painter, Titian, sadly left us very few frescoes by his hand after his death. One of these few examples is a rather well-preserved group in the Scuola del Santo (or “Scoletta”) in Padua which comes from 1511, very early on in his career as an artist. Padua, in Veneto, is actually a city with an extremely rich tradition and heritage of fresco painting.

It is here that we find Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel which cemented the enormous importance of fresco painting as decoration, the tradition of grand fresco cycles and the standard by which all others would come to be measured.

St George's Oratory is a Roman Catholic church built in the 14th century as a family chapel by Marquis Soragna Raimondino Lupi. It is one of the many buildings that make up the rich architectural, artistic and cultural heritage of the historic city of Padua in the Veneto region. Not far from the more famous jewel that is Venice, it is a similarly rewarding place to visit if you are a lover of the arts. Maybe it's time to find a villa with a pool in Veneto and explore it for yourself.

The oratory has a small brick facade and is built on a simple plan of a single nave basilica, topped by a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The interior is like a jewellery box, adorned by frescoes on the walls and ceiling.