It was an era of profound transformations and great hopes in the heart of South Africa, in those years that were shaping the future of the country. Four British colonies, Natal, Cape of Good Hope, Transvaal, and Orange Free State, came together to create a new political entity, born from the ashes of colonial rule over the Boer republics. The establishment of the Union of South Africa was an attempt to unite the diverse communities and their interests under one government, i

Let's start from the city of architecture par excellence , to rediscover the horizons that marked the life of Andrea Palladio and where he set some of his creations, together with those of who followed him took shape, in an epic adventure in the saddle of a Palladian E-Bike. Here's a taste of a stage around halfway: imagine it told in your earphones with the voice of Andrea Palladio, having just discovered a new unexpected glimpse, which will be a new chapter of the extraord

Among the different faces of Venice, there is a half-hidden one, present but not dominant, and it is the face of a mask that whispers an ancient story, older than Venice itself. Among the Gothic and oriental architectures, which make the identity of the most beautiful city in the world, there is a Venice that looks to Rome and Athens, contrasted by conservative families, faithful to the history of a city oriented towards the sea. It is the Venice of families who look to the

The only palace of mine that I was able to see finished was the one for Count Montano Barbarano , an excellent musician, passionate about ancient history like me and many others in my Vicenza. He was able to complete it first of all, obviously, Count Montano, because first of all it is necessary to finance the works, which only at that point can become the toy of an artist or a master builder, in my case of someone halfway between the two, a architect. But at a high price:

The Franciscans had built it three centuries earlier on a vineyard , the great Jacopo Sansovino - proto of Venice before me - had completely rebuilt it at the behest of Doge Andrea Gritti, who was buried here when I was little more than a boy. Thirty years later, once again thanks to Daniele Barbaro , the facade was entrusted to me by the patriarch of Aquileia . To me, not to Sansovino who was still in his place. I was the new one who was advancing, among the patricians o

With each passing year I took a step deeper into the heart of Venice . The Zeno , or Zen, one of the twelve ancient houses in Venice , in which the first body of the patrician nobility was established, concurring to elect the doge. The Zen greatly contributed to the growth and power of the city, reaching the land we now call America before Columbus , first discovering the ghost island of Frislanda in the North Sea. This will then remain, the villa of the Zeno, the villa of e

Giovanni Chiericati was the brother of Girolamo , so I was building the palace on the island of Vicenza. The villa was the first occasion for a very simple idea of mine, which I then took up elsewhere and which was so lucky all over the world. A house preceded simply by the pronaos (the part in front of the "cell", that is the closed, walled part) of a slender Ionic temple , sufficient to completely transform its appearance. A construction site that struggled to take off,

Like Palazzo Thiene , the Villa for Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene was also designed by the great Giulio Romano , the family architect who was in close contact with the Gonzagas of Mantua.​ At the beginning of my career as an architect, I was actually the director of the works here, knowing how to show the masons how to do without stone as much as possible, in favor of terracotta even in different shaped parts. I was a construction man myself. ​But soon Francesco died, at

Brother of Zuanne, father of Carrier, Daniele and Marco of the Villa di Bagnolo , was Francesco Pisani , another Venetian patrician whom I could call a friend. The Pisani dal Banco it can be said that they ruled Venice itself. The credit of the state for the banking family totaled hundreds of thousands of ducats, so without the funds of the Pisans, it can be said that Venice would not have held up the League of Cambrai. Francesco was the churchman of the Pisans, a cardina