(You can see the remains of wedding decorations with the greenery wrapped around some of the candelabra – wouldn’t this be magnificent alit at night?!) From there you went more steps to the ballroom. I wish we could have taken pictures of it – so beautiful! There were large frescos painted on the end of the walls, the rest was painted in tromp l’oil to look like gothic arches and vaulted ceiling, with another fresco painted in the middle of the ceiling, dated 1652. Windows overlooked the backyard allowing light and nature in. You can see why guests enjoyed coming here!
The main villa is no longer used as a home, but is now a museum that has a collection of designer shoes, by Dior, YSL, Givenchy, Ungaro, etc. These are luxury shoes that represent the quality of shoe that “made in Italy” is known for. The current family owns Rossimoda, which had been producing these designer shoes for over 50 years. The exhibit has shoes from the 1600’s but most are from 1960 onward – an incredible collection. There is also artwork pertaining to shoes scattered about and one room contains a numbers of paintings and sketches by Andy Warhol, who was a personal friend of the family.
When the villa was used as a home, it underwent structural modifications in the 19th century and interior decorations as well. It was during this time that there was an interest in Egypt, and one room was decorated with paintings and furniture showing pyramids, Egyptian deities, etc. In homage to the shoe industry, a couple of rooms contain sketches, shoe forms, sewing machines – all old elements used in production of shoes.
Here is the front of the villa, which was located on the main street of Strà.
On Friday the 26th, it was a holiday in Italy, commemorating the liberation of Italy from the Nazis. There were a lot of wreath laying ceremonies and the park across the street from Foscarini displayed one of the wreaths.
