Castle medieval village olive oil mill Venetian baroque garden private tour

Castle medieval village olive oil mill Venetian baroque garden private tour

A private tour to discover the southern region of the Euganean Hills, in the Veneto region close to Venice. You will visit a medieval village, an olive oil mill, the garden of a Venetian Villa, and a guided visit of the castle in the town of Monselice.

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Casa del Petrarca, Via Valleselle 4, 35032 Arqua Petrarca Italy

Arquà Petrarca is a medieval village member of the association of small Italian towns of historical interest that aims to preserve and to maintain villages with a rich cultural heritage. Arquà is located in a picturesque hilly context that the famous Italian poet Francesco Petrarca chose to spend the last four years of his life and where to be buried. Here you will have your lunch and some free time to visit the house of Petrarch and to stroll around its narrow streets.

Close by you will visit an olive oil mill to taste their products and to have some useful information about this important ingredient of the Mediterranean diet. The olive oil extraction is done late autumn, beginning of winter during the harvest. It is not possible to see the process at least you are not here during the period mentioned. But the owner will show you step by step the different passages looking the chain of production. In an area surrounded by olive trees, you will taste the extra virgin olive oil to capture its healthy properties, and you will find also some different products as cosmetics made by olive oil as primary ingredient.

Duration: 2 hours

Stop At: Garden of Villa Barbarigo, Via Diana 2, 35030 Valsanzibio, Galzignano Terme Italy

The garden of Villa Barbarigo-Pizzoni Ardemani, known by its place name Valsanzibio, is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of the most intricate and unspoiled, among Venetian baroque gardens. Its design is deceptively simple, arranged around the principal defining axis that was a feature of Italian Baroque garden design. The long axis continues up a cypress avenue, climbing the hill behind the villa. In front, it takes the form of a lengthy tapis vert, punctuated by fountains and enclosed by high beech hedges. A cross axis, running east to west, takes water as its inspiration. A series of pools, fountains and cascades, unique in the Veneto, carry the eye in a prospettiva d'acqua, which rises up gently towards the wooded, green Euganean Hills. This hilly landscape is not terraced, as in Tuscany or Rome, but has been left to become a natural element in the composition. Beside the two main axes, the garden was divided up into compartmentalized squares or rectangles, each with its own character or theme.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Castello di Monselice, Via del Santuario 17, 35043 Monselice Italy

Your afternoon day excursion continues to reach the castle of Monselice. The visit of this building is with a professional licensed local guide that you will meet when you will arrive on spot. A complex of buildings which consist of four main parts. The most ancient one is composed of a late eleventh-century building, while the Little Castle (Castelletto) dates back to the twelfth century. During the thirteenth century the Castle was enlarged with a massive tower and the large rooms in the keep, characterized by “towered” fireplaces, were made on the fourteenth century. Each room was enriched with a precious collection of authentic furniture, paintings, carpets, tapestries, ceramics, instruments and fabrics in Gothic and Renaissance style.

After the guided visit, you will have a free walking tour along the path that follows the slope of the hill. On the left, you find a staircase and some grotesque statues part of Villa Mocenigo that dates back to the renaissance. Further up the old Cathedral of St Justine built in Romanesque style in 1256 and restored in 1935. Continuing, you will pass through two columns surmounted by two lions and a gate.

From here you will walk through a series of six chapels that accompany the ascent to the area of Villa Duodo. In the church next to the villa there are the relics of 25 Christians protomartyrs justifying the granting of indulgence by Pope Paul V.

Duration: 2 hours