The first villa was called Badoer Fattoretto.
This is a private residence, and we even got to meet the owner and shaked his hand-we even got to meet his two dogs! Badoer was laid out like most of the smaller villas wherein you enter a front door, pass straight through wide doors at the back and rooms are arranged on either side. These are two pictures of the rear of the house, looking through to the front.
The unique thing about this villa is that the father of the current owner had been quite an eclectic collector of antiques, and so there are over 15,000 items housed here in various rooms and out building. These objects are mostly utilitarian and we started with the prettiest display which was in the kitchen. Copper pots, pans, kettles, molds…hung from the walls, the ceiling and on top the tables. There was a beautiful cooking fireplace surrounded by tiles, the table was set for dinner – it looked like a scene from an old period movie. The library had books lying about, all kinds of old papers and documents – too many to peruse even if I could read the Italian. In the attached “garage” there were carriages, all kinds of equipment for blacksmithing, agricultural, housekeeping, children’s toys, baby walkers, potty chairs… as I said, a very eclectic collection. There was even an old dentist chair with the attached strap used to hold the patients head to the back rest. One of the carriages can be seen inside the door of the “garage”. (Notice the equine topiaries).
Here’s another picture of the rear of the villa (notice one of the dog houses in the corner)
The white birds in the previous pictures were doves, which had their own nesting boxes on the garage.
The rest of the property was of good size, with various points of interest scattered about.
Legend has it that at one time, prior to the villa’s construction, monks from nearby had buried treasure on the property for safe keeping. Just to make sure there was no proof to the legend, one of the villa’s former owners began to dig to look for it. He never found it, but ended up with a lovely pond as a result.
Our guide was Francesca, who between her knowledge of English, my pocket dictionary, and educated guesses on our part, managed to do a good job of explaining the history of Villa Badoer Fattoretto. (FYI – I had asked Francesca if she too was a student like last week’s guide. Her answer was that she was done with school, she is a lawyer and is a tour guide because she enjoys it).
