Venice and the Veneto: Medieval Padua and Wine Tasting

Our afternoons were free after our delicious lunches at the villa, so one day we took the opportunity to visit a local winery. We were treated to a guided tour of the Widmann Borletti Villa, it had a beautiful house which was started life as a Benedictine monastery in 954 and the gardens were really stunning.

This year's grapes won't be ready for harvest until the Autumn, this will be done by the local villagers and other farmers in the area who take it in turns to help with the harvest at each farm.  They also still use their feet to squash the grapes for processing.  The best part of the tour was visiting the medieval cellars, which were the oldest remaining part of the villa.

The wine was really nice - the Friularo was their speciality and was particularly good.

Another afternoon we visited the ancient town of Padua which was half an hour away. It is most famous for the Cappella Degli Scrovegni, which is a beautiful chapel built by Enrico Scrovegni to honour his father in the early 1300s. The incredibly beautiful frescos were painted by Giotto and cover every wall and the ceiling. Giotto was famed for creating a new style of painting, which depicted people in a more lifelike way and showed more emotion than previous artists.

You can't take photos inside the chapel but this is the outside....

The town has lots of winding little roads with lots of character.

We also visited the Basilica Di Sant'Antonio, which was possibly the most beautiful church I have ever been in. There are no photos of the inside but even the outside is spectacular.

The church is the burial site of the patron saint of Padua, St Anthony. You can also see his (green) tongue and chin on display in the chapel, which were the only pieces of his body that remained when his tomb was opened in 1263. The rest of the church was truly stunning though.