From the middle of the fifteenth century in Italy , in addition to Tuscany , distinct paths to humanism emerged in various other regions. One of the most coherent and successful paths was the Venetian path, with Venice as the driving force. In Venice , as in Florence , the most important cultural objective of art was the determination of the universal essence of nature . Unlike the Tuscans who identified it in the intelligible form of the former and in the substance of the l

Water, Stone, and the Quiet Geography of Beauty Losing yourself in the evocative and enveloping atmosphere of Orta  feels like stepping into a small northern Eden where light, architecture and myth breathe together. The villas reflecting in the lake, the gentle succession of gardens and stone, the silence broken only by footsteps on cobbled alleys — everything seems suspended, as if waiting to be read. And within this luminous quiet, the world of Palladio does not appear as

We are always impressed by the admirable frescoes of which the Palladian villas are rich . Sometimes a servant peeps out of an open door, a trompe-l'oeil that used to deceive the amused guests of the residence. But what background music did the noblewomen hear at the parties held in that sumptuousness ? On what melodies did the gentlemen of the Serenissima in the Renaissance move their feet, at the rich dinners that took place in these halls? Well, they probably swayed to the

Even in Polignano there's a little bit of Venice. In fact, the beautiful town on the sea reports in its past years of domination by the Serenissima Republic , until 1530, when this and other provinces were returned to the Kingdom of Naples, after twenty years of Venetian domination . Still today, visible in the center of the city, the Doge's Palace dominates. Its position, strategic, sees on one side the city walls and the Porta Grande, on the other the Palace of the Feudal

Goethe was particularly fascinated by the Palladian architecture so that he had had the opportunity to encounter in Veneto, one of the first stages of his Grand Tour. The columns of the noble mansions reminded him of the temples of Greece, and the atmosphere he breathed while he visited clothed them with a sacred veil. The lush gardens delighted his gaze, the scent of rare species of roses stimulated all of his senses and heightened his creativity. Goethe would have rediscov