At Villa Selvatico da Porto it happens to wake up in the morning and think: wow, here you live out of time! The villa is located in the countryside between Padua and Vigonza, in a postcard landscape in an area still largely unknown to mass tourism.
In the Veneto countryside
Think of a noble country house dating back to a period between the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 1500s, where patrician families used to stay for their summer “vacation” and to control agricultural possessions. There is no certain information about who commissioned the villa, while it is possible to identify the date in which it was purchased by the noble Venetian Selvatico family in 1792, through the plaque placed on the north facade.
Alessandra da Porto, owner of the villa and manager of the farm that is located next to the refined residence, told us that it was they who promoted a first restoration that not only embellished Villa Selvatico giving it its current forms but at the same time added other buildings to agricultural destination, such as the “barchessa”, the “barco” and the “limonaia”.
The architecture of the building is the pre-Palladian one typical of many Venetian villas, with a large manor house set on two floors and a double symmetry, with two identical facades, softened by arched portals surmounted by original masks.
The Vicentine family da Porto bought it in 1951, carefully renovating it and creating five independent apartments and a double bedroom perfectly equipped and furnished, surrounded by a large three-hectare garden, in which there is also a beautiful outdoor swimming pool available of guests during the summer season.
As in a typical Venetian palace, on the ground floor and first floor of the main residence, built on an ancient medieval castle that belonged to the rich and powerful Speronella Dalesmanin and her unscrupulous son Jacopo da Sant’Andrea, mentioned by Dante in the 13th Canto of the Inferno in the Divine Comedy, there are two large, identical passing halls with a wooden ceiling that cross it from north to south, flanked by smaller rooms with an equally fascinating atmosphere.
Inside the villa there are the apartments “Le Magnolie” and “Il Fogher” while “Il Portico”, “Il Glicine” and the “Ortensia” suite are located in the “barchessa”, which once represented the agricultural part of the Villa Selvatico.
Separated from the rest of the buildings is “La Serra”, which welcomed our sleep and dreams at Villa Selvatico. Looking out from the glass door of the small house obtained in the ancient greenhouse, once used to house ornamental plants to defend them from the harsh winter climate, the first thing that strikes the attention is the orderly countryside in which the farm of the da Porto family grow wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower.
A centuries-old park stretches around the banks of the River Tergola, which gives the surrounding landscape a light and unashamed beauty and peace and serenity for guests.
Alessandra welcomed us with great cordiality together with her father making us sit in the large living room furnished with family furniture and paintings, telling us the story of the noble residence and how it came into possession of the da Porto. And she has also been generous with advice.
We welcomed them all: from where to go for dinner in the surroundings, to walks in the “brolo” as the orchard is called in Veneto, or along the waterway that borders the property up to a red building in which until some time ago there was a mill. If you like walking or cycling, these paths are ideal and at sunset you can enjoy the warm light of the sun that dies and tinges everything with gold.
If you don’t want to take a stroll, Villa Selvatico da Porto is the right place to enjoy rest and pure relaxation. Regarding the concept of eating well, this one in the surroundings of Padua takes on different inclinations and aspects: you eat well not only in high-level restaurants, where traditional cuisine is revised and proposed in an original and unique way as from Incàlmo in Este, but also and in a genuine way in the places and trattorias of small towns like Campodarsego.
It is here, in the hamlet of Sant’Andrea, that there are places that are always ready to offer the best of tradition, such as Osterie Moderne, a restaurant and wine bar with a wood oven, and Da Nalin, run by the same family since 1913.
In conclusion, it will no longer be the times of the Serenissima, but a certain allure still lingers and the atmosphere is always and in any case of discrete exclusivity, and with its well-kept suites and the large park Villa Selvatico da Porto is a buen retiro that just like we will find it hard to leave and forget.
Agriturismo Villa Selvatico da Porto
Via Selvatico, 1 – Codiverno di Vigonza (PD)
Info: +39 049 8005361
www.villa-selvatico.com – info@villa-selvatico.com
