Villa Contarini is the great Baroque villa of the Veneto countryside, begun in 1546 for the Contarini family and enlarged between 1671 and 1676, set in some 40 hectares of parkland at Piazzola sul Brenta.
It is administered today by the Fondazione Ghirardi and opened to visitors with a guided tour of the interior. Look for the Shell Room and the Well Room, and for the Music Room, whose sounding box is shaped like an inverted guitar and carries voices with unusual clarity. Outside, the park has flower beds, fish ponds, a lake with an island and long shaded avenues, and can be visited on its own. It makes an easy half-day from Padua or Vicenza.
