Villa Pisani

Hidden in a little place 30 minutes south of Padua, this real Italian villa is accessible to you and me. You’ll be awash in art in your room, and surrounded by trimmed hedges and antique rose bushes in the garden. Throw away your cell phone — you won’t need it here, and it will seem stupid to use it. And for that matter, don’t bother looking for internet access or even television. Just enjoy yourself, the villa, its surroundings.

hidden in the Veneto, built by the Doge of Venice as a country residence for his family — bella!

A history from 1606 mentions the villa; its magnificent gardens were an 18th-19th century addition. Henry James slept here, as did Robert Browning. Now it is the home of Dr. Mariella Bolognesi Scalabrin, who has opened it as a bed and breakfast for guests.

If you are expecting TV, radio, internet access, air conditioning, or many “things to see and do” in the neighborhood, you should stay elsewhere. What we did at the Villa was stay at the Villa, eat a picnic we brought along for dinner, and walk in the gardens. We admired the magnificent frescoes upstairs, and imagined all that has taken place in the grand old building over the years.

Perhaps the sweetest, if the oddest, memory I have of the place is of the evening’s entertainment. The Villa was hosting a private party downstairs the night we were there, and we were hardly dressed to crash a garden wedding. So we watched from the shutters of the main floor (the “second floor”) as guests arrived. It was very easy to imagine the children of a century or more ago, watching the grownups arrive for a party from the nursery floor above us.

So what did we do with our evening? We listened to the party and sat on the floor of the giant salon, playing gin rummy. It was an odd, but very pleasant, evening.

For more information, the website for Villa Pisani is: http://www.villapisani.it/english/indexeng.htm