By Bertie Shepherd-Cross
Are you feeling blue after four months of winter hibernation? Bored of the nine to five, gym membership and rubbish telly? Perhaps you’re dying to sink your teeth into a big bowl of bolognese and a glass of Chianti? Or maybe even in need of some local Italian culture and vitamin D?
If so, then I have just the answer for you… The Villa Saraceno.
Built in the 1540s by the renowned Italian architect Andrea Palladio for his patron Biaggio Saraceno to escape the turmoil of urban Vicenza, it answered both his agricultural calling to the fertile plains of the Veneto and his desires for a more refined existence in emulation of classical antiquity. One of about 20 Palladian villas in the region, the Villa Saraceno is a stunning example of Palladio’s early villa architecture, offering perfect proportions, a grand portico and an unassuming yet striking presence. The best part is that you can call it your home for a week. Thanks to the incredible conservation work of The Landmark Trust in the 1990s, the villa is now open all year round to accommodate up to 16 guests in the beautifully renovated main house and adjoining barchessa (colonnaded farm building). Whether you want to invite the family or escape with a crowd of mates, the whole place could be yours for 4 days starting from just £27 per person per night. So, go on, what are you waiting for?
It’s not every day that you can stay in such a rich historical region, teeming with medieval Italian towns, vineyards and vast skies arching from the Dolomites to the Adriatic. It is for these very reasons that the Veneto lends itself so beautifully, in the current century as in the sixteenth (and indeed the first), to the pursuit of the intrinsically Italian concept of villeggiatura.
A prolonged stay in the countryside away from the humdrum of urban life, villeggiatura today, as it was for Biaggio Saraceno, is an imitation of the ancient Roman practice of escaping the city to enjoy rural pastimes like hunting, fishing and farming. Not only was it a physical withdrawal, but the villeggiatura constituted something of an intellectual escape, a retreat for the mind and a chance to gather one’s thoughts, read, learn and converse with friends over dinner or whilst taking in some fresh air. It captured country life in all its glory: farming and fresh food, eating and entertaining, wandering and withdrawing, reading and writing, and above all, taking time to admire the beauty of the natural world, surrounded by the peace of open pastures and orchards.
In a world of incessant doom-scrolling and dwindling attention spans, of fast fashion and fast food, of instant answers and Instagram stories, why not slow it down? Cancel that Brits-abroad lads’ trip to the Bulgarian coast or the girls-only package holiday to the Costa Brava, and consider the virtues of the slow life in your very own Italian villa in the middle of nowhere.
With all the comfort but none of the pretension of that dreadfully overused word – ‘luxury’ – the Villa Saraceno exudes simplicity and rural charm, forcing you to take life that little bit slower. Whether it’s a long soak in the bath with bubbles and an audiobook or an evening of games on the lawn with aperitivo in hand – a stay here will rouse in you an inevitable Epicureanism, a love of the humble life, something that you will long for the minute you return to the cyclical monotony of daily existence. And what’s more, you will return feeling rejuvenated and reset, rather than exhausted, hungover, with an unwanted tattoo and sunburnt shoulders.
If it’s urban sophistication you are after, Venice, Padua, Vicenza, and Verona are all within distance. The villa is perfectly placed for a week of exploration and cultural enrichment. One day can be spent admiring the palaces of the Grand Canal from the back of a gondola and marvel at the golden tiled interior of St Mark’s Basilica. Spend another day taking a trip to the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua to see Giotto’s breathtaking 1304 fresco cycle that predated the Renaissance masters by an entire century. Alternatively, visit Vicenza and enjoy the café culture before continuing deeper into the countryside to discover Palladio’s two greatest villas, the Villa Rotonda and Villa Barbaro. Or, live out your wildest Shakespearean dreams in the city of the Montagues and Capulets; during the summer months, you can even attend the Verona opera festival in the city’s 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre.
It’s in stumbling across the smaller towns – those yet to be discovered by Instagram – that one becomes the most surprised. Whether it is the small, medieval walled settlement of Montagnana (with an altarpiece by Veronese in its duomo and the Palladian Villa Pisani just outside the city walls) or the house of Petrarch in the Euganean Hills, the surrounding country offers enough treasures to quench the wanderlust of even the most fervent explorer.
It must be said that Palladian villas, for all their proportion, symmetry and those iconic pedimented façades, might look recognisably traditional to us today. However, in their heyday, Palladio’s designs were at the forefront of architectural innovation. As a stone cutter with a humanist education who studied the classical ruins of ancient Rome, Palladio was well-placed to give the gentleman farmers of the Veneto the refined and classical houses that aligned with their intellectual and social aspirations. Palladio’s villas reincarnated classical forms that were to become trademarks of the Western architectural canon and kickstarted a legacy that has survived from his day to ours. From Lord Burlington’s Chiswick House in London to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia, and even the Poundbury housing estate on the edge of Dorchester, Palladianism really is all around us. Nowhere else, though, is it possible to stay in one of his original sixteenth-century villas surrounded by the tranquillity of the Venetian plains. This is a truly unique opportunity. So, channel that pioneering Palladian spirit and book yourself a week of villeggiatura all’antica at the Villa Saraceno.
The 21st-century concept of self-care typically encompasses a digital detox and a new HIIT and cardio regime, alongside a plant-based, probiotic diet and juice cleanse, coupled with a spiritual reawakening or simply some ‘me time’ to journal or compile a scrapbook. Read that book you’ve been saving for years, cook wholesome family favourites, go on walks, stop and think. Just think. Retreat inside your mind, unplug the podcast, and take a moment to reflect. Deemed old fashioned or a waste of precious time in our non-stop, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants society, thinking is a vital part of the human condition that now all too easily falls off the end of the ‘to-do’ list. So, let’s factor in some quiet time into our busy lives and reinstate villeggiatura as a way of boosting our mental well-being and appreciating the world around us.
A stay in the Villa Saraceno would be your perfect chance to disconnect from the group chat, let go of the stresses of work, and completely switch off. Swap the unwelcome intrusion of an early morning alarm for the warm orange glow of the sun against the bedroom wall. Swap the coffee to go for a lazy, PJ-clad breakfast with friends. Swap the morning commute for a wander around the grounds of this tranquil haven.
However you choose to interpret this ancient tradition of physical and spiritual revitalisation, the Villa Saraceno is the perfect place to start your first forays into the world of villeggiatura. Of course, it does not have to be a Renaissance Italian villa. Book yourself into a shepherd’s hut, rent a cottage in the hills, take a tent to the bottom of the garden or pack it into the car and drive somewhere. In short, don’t be afraid to leave the all-inclusive for another year, escape the ordinary, and take some time out to recall the good things in life. Relax, daydream and enjoy the natural diversions of our beautiful world. If ever in doubt, do as the Italians do and indulge in la dolce far niente, the sweetness of doing nothing.