The Riviera del Brenta and Venice: from land and water

• Day 1 — Arrival

Upon your arrival you will receive the travel guide Un amico a Venezia (Your Friend in Venice) with all the tips and events taking place during the period of your stay.

The dinner with typical dishes of Venetian cuisine awaits you in your residence.

• Day 2 — Riviera del Brenta

Bike route along the Riviera del Brenta

The cycle route along the Brenta River crosses a landscape where one can admire dozens of Venetian Villas. Following the Naviglio you will explore the small historic towns that overlook the waterway with movable bridges, hydraulic locks, up to the ancient mill and the historic squero of Dolo. As you cycle quietly to the fresh fragrance of cut grass on the banks in a setting of sixteenth-century Villas and aristocratic gardens, the quacking of ducks follows you, and you can savour time which, in the same way as the water, is moving slowly.

Visit one or more of the Villas of the Riviera del Brenta such as the Villa Pisani di Strà, which was built by the noble Venetian family of the same name in the eighteenth century; or the seventeenth-century Villa Foscarini Rossi and its Footwear Museum; and Villa Venier, where the owners themselves open the gates of their residences and accompany you among mementos recalling their ancestors and the splendour of a far distant era, treasure chests of memorabilia preserved with painstaking care and to be shared only with those who approach them with discretion and respect.

• Day 3 — The Brenta by canoe

Canoe tours

The Riviera del Brenta from a whole new perspective!  An excursion that combines sport and culture in the celebrated Riviera dei Dogi.
Duration about 3 hours with presentation of the possible routes and explanation of the use of the canoe.

• Day 4 — Padua

Cycling route to Padua 

An itinerary of great scenic and artistic interest to Padua along the banks of Brenta and Piovego, the canal that the Padovans dug in 1209 to connect the city to the river Brenta so they could reach the Venice lagoon easily.

Padua by bike is even more beautiful and should be visited by cycling through its many piazzas. Don’t miss the Basilica of Sant’Antonio, the Chapel of the Scrovegni where Giotto’s frescoes are preserved, the Palazzo della Ragione and the evocative covered market, and Prato della Valle, one of the largest squares in Europe. Just a few more turns of the pedal away is the famous, renowned Caffè Pedrocchi where intellectuals, students and citizens from further afield once used to meet.

(route of about 50 km)

• Day 5 — Saccisica

The gentle, slow pace of Saccisica with its villas and casoni

Itinerary along dirt banks and country roads to visit Piove di Sacco, Saccisica and its casoni. A perfect blend of art and nature, Saccisica stretches behind the lagoon. It was once a land of peasants and the country mansions of Venetian nobles. It is a little-known yet captivating area to visit by bicycle along cycle paths and river embankments that lead, in a few dozen kilometers, to Padua, to the thermal baths at Euganea or Chioggia and from here to Pellestrina.

Visit to Villa Roberti, built between 1549 and 1553 by the architect Andrea da Valle, contemporary of Palladio.
Visit to the casoni (constructions with clay floors and pitched roofs thatched with marsh reed) to learn about rural farming life as lived of the era of the majestic Villas.

(route of about 50 km)

• Day 6 – Venice

Itinerary in real Venice

Half-day walking tour with SlowVenice guide: a glimpse of the city through the labyrinth of its calli and canals.

The Venetian labyrinth always holds a sudden glimpse from afar in store for the visitor, or a calle (street in Venetian), or waterfront encountered for the first time.
Follow us along an untrodden path and explore the places where the tourists never venture, on routes that follow the everyday rhythms of the city and its inhabitants, in search of the essence of Venice.