Departing from Padua the first visit is devoted to the grandest of all the villas on the Brenta: Villa Pisani, which is now a National Museum. Built by the Pisani family of Venice between 1720 and 1760 to celebrate the election of Alvise Pisani as Doge, the villa was built on a project by Girolamo Frigimelica, later modified by Francesco Maria Preti. In 1807, the villa was sold to Napoleon I. Among the artists who decorated the apartments , the most outstanding was Tiepolo, whose masterpiece, painted in 1761-62 – Apotheosis of the Pisani Family – graces the ceiling of the ballroom.

After pausing at the locks of Dolo and Mira, Il Burchiello® docks at Mira to visit Barchessa Valmarana or Villa Widmann.