 Main attractions
in the surroundings of Altaura Farm
Casale di Scodosia (PD) At just 50 metres from the farm you will find Villa Correr. It was built in the 18th Century with materials recovered from the previous rural house (1500s) and it stands out thanks to its decorated plaster work made with natural soil and its windows with glass medallions built in Murano.
Montagnana (PD) 8 km: Beautifully preserved medieval walled city. The cathedral is of considerable interest as it is home of paintings by Jacopo Da Bassano. Villa Pisani Placco: the building combines an urban front facing a piazza, and, on the other side, a rural frontage extending into gardens, with an agricultural setting beyond. Villa Pisani reflects the sophisticated tastes of the owner. The central block is an uncompromising rectangle, with a pedimented tetrastyle portico, Ionic over Doric, which has been sunk into its wall-plane so that the columns are embedded half-columns. On the garden front, the similar structure instead forms a screen across the fronts of a recessed portico surmounted by a loggia, which become a single recessed central feature. The Doric frieze runs uninterrupted round the building, further binding all its elements together.
Pojana Maggiore (VI) 14 km: Villa Pojana, one of Andrea Palladio's masterpieces. It is fascinating for its extreme linearity and simplicity.
Carceri (PD) 14km: Abbazia di Santa Maria delle Carceri (Abbey). Built by the Augustinian monks before the 1000s, it was dedicated to the recovery of land. It was later entrusted to the Camaldolese, who continued the work and constituted a true Academy of Study. It was later bought by the Carminati family, who later signed it over. Of particular value are the two cloisters of the 1300s and 1500s, the baptistery and the Church, even the house and the library. Today, part of the ancient monastery is dedicated to host the Rural Society Museum.
 
Badia Polesine (RO) 15 km: Abbazia della Vangadizza (Abbey). The whole complex has several different frescoes and is stuccoed. Very important examples are, the Chapel of Our Lady, stuccoed by Filippo Zaniberti in 600, and the bell tower whose lower part was built with recycled bricks and materials from the Roman time. There is a very beautiful cloister and courtyard that hosts the borehole from the 300s in Venetian Gothic Style with the coat of arms of the Camaldolese Family.
Este (PD) 17 km: A walled city in the Euganean Hills Regional Park, with beautiful gardens. The Atestino Archaeological Museum houses, the sixteenth-century Palazzo Mocenigo, archaeological materials that are great representations of the ancient Venetians culture. This is supported by relevant testimonies of the Atheste Roman centre. Of great interest, is an Etruscan tomb with 125 funerary objects as well as the famous "Situla Benvenuti", a masterpiece embossing work of the Seventh Century B.C.
Noventa Vicentina (VI)17 km: Villa Barbarigo. Among the villas built by Venetian patrician families in Vicenza, Noventa stands out the most for if was built by a ducal family, distinguished for their services to the Venetian Republic. It is for this reason that this villa merits the title of Villa dei Dogi (definition that in the past some scholars have improperly attributed to all villas in the Veneto Region).
Monselice (PD) 20km: Castello Cini. Between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, the castle, has gone from a stately home, to defensive tower, to Venetian Villa. On the ground floor, in the former library of the castle, the Antiquarium Longobardo was set up in 1998. The museum hosts a small longobardian necropolis from the archaeological site located halfway the coast of Colle della Rocca, along the route of the Mastio Feliciano. The Jubilee Sanctuary of the Seven Churches designed and built by Vicenzo Scamozzi, commissioned by the Venetian Nobles Duodo between 1605 and 1615. In this same period the Duodo built seven chapels. Six of the chapels house valuable altar pieces of Jacopo Palma il Giovane while the seventh, dedicated to Saint Peter and Paul, has an altarpiece attributed to the Bavarian painter Giovanni Carlo Loth. You can also visit Villa Pisani with Palladian designs built in 1553/6 by order of the Venetian Nobleman Francesco Pisani. The "casino", located along the banks of the canal that connected Padova and Este, served the Pisani family as a resting point for the journey between Venice and their land in the plains of Padova.
Vescovana (PD) 25km: Villa Pisani. The villa was built in the first half of the 1500s commissioned by the Cardinal Francesco Pisani, a Venetian patrician, Bishop of Padova, to be the administrative office of the lands the family acquired in 1478 in the lowlands of Padova. Following the shift of economic and financial interests of the family on the mainland, the Venetian nobleman commissioned Andrea Palladio, and some of the greatest architects and painters of the time, to work upon the construction and decoration of many villas and palaces in the area.
Arquà Petrarca (PD) 27Km: Petrarca's House. The house of Francesco Petrarca shows the new vision of the life in the country of which the poet became a spokesman, occupying a prominent place in the history of the origins of the Venetian Villa.
Stanghella (PD) 32km: Museo Civico Etnografico. Divided into various sections, contains rich original documents concerning the human colonization of Lower Padova.
Battaglia Terme (PD) 34km: Castello del Catajo. The Obizzi family, whose origins lie in the Burgundy region of France, may be considered in Italian history as ‘a soldiers of fortune family’. The family reached Italy in the wake of the Emperor Henry II, 1007 AD. After originally settling in Tuscany, the family took up residence in the Venetian Republic. At that time, the powerful Republic was rarely at war with the Italian states as its interests mainly stemmed from maritime activity outside of Italy. In a period of peace, Pio Enea degli Obizzi (who has his name upon the ‘Obice’-a howitzer siege cannon), attracted by the beauty of the area, decided to build a palace worthy of the magnificence of his family. This castle was designed by Pio Enea himself with the help of architects. It is therefore a cross between a military installation-and the palace of a prince. I was built in just three years, between 1570 and 1573 (with the exception of the uppermost wing, which dates from the 19th century). Paintings depicting the families exploits were originally planned to cover the exterior walls of the structure, however that plan never came to be, and in 1571 Pio Enea had the interior walls frescoed with the those same exploits. The artist was Gian Battista Zelotti, a pupil of Paolo Veronese. The castle looks like a massive structure. Perched between the hills behind it and the canal that flows before it, the outer appearance is that of a medieval castle. But, the richness of the interior decoration reflects the elegant and refined taste of the Renaissance. The location served the dual purposes of providing housing to the soldiers of Pio Enea as well as an appropriately magnificent setting to receive distinguished guests.
The Castle of Catajo is open to the general public by guided tour in the afternoons of Sundays, Tuesdays, and bank holidays between the months of February and November. The castle is open year-round to family, school, and summer -resort groups- though bookings are essential. Catajo is also an ideal setting for the hosting of; wedding receptions, business meetings, events, and indoor concerts of up to 350 persons.
Valsanzibio (PD) 35km: Villa Pizzoni Ardemani with its beautiful gardens, the exceptional architectural, sculptural, hydraulic, and garden design integrity of the complex is due to the diligent care of six generations of Barbagio. In 1804, the family line was extinct and the Nobleman Marco Antonio Michiel was designated as heir. There then followed the equally passionate Count Martinengo da Barco, afterwards Countess Doná delle Roses from 1929, and finally the Noble Pizzoni Ardemani. Owners from three generations have repaired the disasters caused by military occupations and the forced abandonment of the last war and have recently restored all the thirty-three water sources of the Garden undermined by the progressive impoverishment. Thanks to that, Valsanzibio, is today a rare example of a monumental garden.
Teolo (PD) 35 km: Abbazia di Praglia (Abbey). The foundation of the Abbey dates back to the 1100s and 1200s. The first Abbot, Iselberto dei Tadi, became a monk at the Monastery of San Benedetto Polirone di Mantova. He appears in the important papal bull of Callisto II in 1123, by which the pope took under his protection the new Abbey. Until 1304 Praglia was strongly subject to the powerful abbey of Polirone, founded by the Canossa Earls in 1007 and then entered into the sphere of influence of the Cluny abbey. At the beginnings of the fourteenth century, the community of Paglia, was consolidated and rooted more firmly in Padova and the Abbey became autonomous. It was led by an abbot elected from its own "body". The fifteenth century began with good auspices for the future of the Italian monasticism after all the damages caused by the Commendatory Abbot; in fact, it is in the Abbey of Santa Giustina di Padova, where the great Benedictine reform begins and spreads across the peninsula to Sicily. Paglia joined such reform in 1448.
Due Carrare (PD) 37km: Castello di San Pelagio. The fourteenth century tower, part of the defensive system of Carrara, dates from 1340. From 1600 onwards the villa is born, in the 1700s, it was entirely remodelled be the Count of Zaborra to better perform the agricultural functions. In 1918 it was home of the squadron "La Serenissima" which from here departed for the Flight over Vienna under the command of D. d'Annunzio. In 1970, the property, to rescue it from degradation, it was transformed; thus the San Pelagio Complex: House, Museum and Gardens were born. The Air and Flight Museum opened in 1980, thanks to the efforts of Maria Fede Caproni. The main section of the museum and the rooms were the poet stayed from 1917 to 1919 are dedicated to the whole history of human flight pivoting around D'Annunzio's Company. Around the main area there are rooms dedicated to Leonardo, Montgolfier, Wright, Ferrain, Lindbergh, Nobile, Balbo, Forlanini, Gagarin and Armstrong.
Montegrotto Terme (PD) 45km: Butterfly Arc. Opened in 1988, the House of the Butterfly is one of the most important living museums and is the centre of initiatives with global reach.
Abano Terme (PD) 45km: Abano Terme is considered the most important thermal resort in Europe and among the best in the world. Its reputation comes from the quality accommodation and avant-garde therapeutics and able to integrate seamlessly into de environment that surrounds it. Abano Terme currently has 78 spa hotels which offer a total of 10,500 beds, 120 swimming pools, 50 tennis courts, parks and gardens, high-quality services in the field of spa treatments which combines cosmetic care of the body, fitness, and all that is able to regenerate the body in all its aspects. The city of Abano welcomes annually more than 250,000 guests and 2 million visitors; the attraction of such a large number of tourists is due to the unique characteristic of its therapeutic components: Thermal Water and Mud.
Padova 55km: The city of the Saint. Home of an old and prestigious university, Padova boasts numerous testimonies of its glorious cultural and artistic past, which makes it a destination for tourists from all over the world. Today it is an important economic centre, one of the largest and most important intermodal transport hubs, including fluvial, across Europe and is currently the largest inland port in northern and central Italy. Padova houses one of the most extraordinary and revolutionary masterpieces of medieval art, the Scroverni Chapel, painted at the beginning of the 1300s by Giotto. Padova is universally known as the city of Saint Anthony, the famous Portuguese Franciscan born in Lisbon in 1195, who lived in Padova for several years and died there on the 13th of June of 1231. The remains of the saint are kept in Saint Anthony's Basilica, the destination of many pilgrims from all over the world and one of the main monuments of the city.
If you would like to discover all the Venetian Villas in the area, please visit: http://www.villevenete.net/portalVV/
Distances from Casale di Scodosia:
Vicenza 50 km, Verona 58 km, Venezia 95 km, Mantova 65 km, Ferrara 55 km, Rovigo 40 km, Bologna 110 km, Treviso 110 km, Cortina d’Ampezzo 230 km.
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MAIN ATTRACTIONS IN THE AREA
