Riviera dell Brenta part 4 (final)

The final villa we visited was Villa Pisani - the most elaborate of all of the villas (there are around 50). It was built to celebrate one of the Pisani's becoming Doge. He was the 114th Doge so the villa has 114 rooms and it absolutely extravagant. Unfortunately you can't take photos inside, but the Villa has been inhabited by numerous different rulers throughout the ages - I even saw Napoleon's bed and washroom!

The villa is so big that I couldn't get it all in one photo, so above is the centre and then one of the wings (there is a matching one the other side).

This is the view as you walk out the back of the villa, looking towards their 'stables'!!!! The villa is massive and is set on substantial grounds - I think it was something like 13 hectares.

Looking from the stables back towards the villa.

The stables are rather misleading - it looks like they constructed a palace for their horses (which I could totally understand!) but actually they just made a facade. So behind this gloriously ornate 'building' there is nothing - I assume there was once normal stables and yards, but the land has now been sold and so when you look through the centre columns there is a road and houses just out the back.

The coffee house

Villa Pisani has one of only a few mazes remaining throughout Europe. I was so looking forward to exploring it.

Approaching the maze - there is a turret in the centre.

Inside the maze - the hedges are fairly tall -Nick might be able to see the tops if he stood on his toes

Views from the centre turret.

It turned out that as part of a contemporary art exhibition showing there, an artist had made a trail of pool balls along the correct track. I wanted to explore the maze but given our totally limited time I decided to follow the guide and just as well I did, because that alone took me 20 minutes to get in and out of the maze!

The grounds are full of old sculptures.

After this we hopped on a bus back to Venice and so concludes my tour.