The nearest town is Padova (12 km), with its medieval squares and their daily markets, along with the Prà della Valle square, which is the largest neoclassical square in Europe, the University founded in 1222, the old ghetto and the S.Antonio and S.Giustina basilicas. The Scrovegni Chapel, which houses the only complete series of frescoes painted by Giotto in his mature age, is a masterpiece in the history of painting in Italy and Europe in the 14th century and is the town’s most famous tourist attraction.
Venice, the world’s most famous town for art and culture, is only 30 km far from here. Venice is a thirty-minute car trip away or can be reached by train from the nearby railway station in Dolo. It is also well worth approaching Venice by car, bike or boat along the Riviera del Brenta, which starts just 7 km from Villa Selvatico at the magnificent Villa Nazionale in Strà. That villa was ordered by the Doge Pisani, but in the following centuries it became the house of Napoleone Bonaparte and then of the Italian Royal Family. More than fifty villas were built along side the river between the XVI and XVIII Centuries by the Venetian nobility. Nowadays some of these villas, designed by architects such as Palladio, Scamozzi, Frigimelica and painted by artists such as Benedetto Caliari, Jacopo Guarana, the Tiepolos, are open to the public.
Vicenza is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Here the architect Palladio built his masterpieces: the Olympic Theatre, the Basilica, the town palaces, the country houses in the surroundings, the famous wooden bridge in the charming town of Bassano.
The medieval town of Treviso, on the contrary, is rich in rivers and watermills inside its typical historical centre, where spending your time simply walking and tasting the excellent local cuisine is really pleasant.
As well as the main cities, also the small centres are rich in art and history and are worth a visit. The walled towns, with their imposing medieval town walls preserved to this day, or the villages overlooked by magnificent villas built during the Renaissance, in the Baroque or in the Neoclassical age, are particularly impressive.
To the North of Padova, you can find the walled towns of Cittadella and Castelfranco as well as the charming Asolo. Possagno is famous for the temple and the gipsoteca by the most famous neoclassical sculptor, Antonio Canova; Piazzola sul Brenta is characterized by the impressive Villa Contarini. To the South of Padova, you can find the walled towns of Este and Montagnana, Monselice, and the charming village of Arquà Petrarca..
Finally, Verona is 85 km away from Villa Selvatico. During the summertime, the famous and evocative Operas take place here. Not very far from Verona there is also the well known Lake Garda.
One hour away from here, you can spend a day at the seaside in Sottomarina, with the nearby fishermen’s town of Chioggia, a kind of little Venice, or at the elegant beach of Lido di Venezia.
Arabba, S.Martino di Castrozza and Cortina, which are the most attractive places in the Dolomites, are two hours away by car.