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The
Riviera del Brenta
The only reason one has to visit the Riveira Del Brenta is to
gaze at the gracious villas that
dot the banks of the Brenta canal.
This canal runs from Fusina to
Padua. During the Renaissance
period wealthy merchants built
these villas to get away from the
summer heat. This stretch of
seventeen kilometers was famous
for Shakespeare to let Portia, his
heroine in “The Merchant of
Venice”, have her home as a
villa at Belmont along the Brenta.
The provinces’ chief architect was Andrea di Pietro,
known as Palladio
(1508-80), and it was he who
designed 19 of the villas.
Inspired by ancient Roman
architecture, Palladio's
remarkable design of square,
perfectly proportioned,
functionally elegant buildings
became the standard by which
villas were judged. His designs
are familiar to Americans as they
are the basis for most state
capitals and for Jefferson's
Monticello.
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