Ca’ Marcello’s centuries-old park
The Italian style garden
In front of the villa the Italian Garden holds eighteenth and nineteenth century statuary of mythological figures, centred around a fountain and simple grass parterres. There are several flowering plant varieties, which flourish alternatively from April to October. From this point you get a complete view of the lateral arcaded wings (barchesse). On each side the gate piers are surmounted by statues of the Four Seasons, with Winter depicted as an old man and Summer grasping a scythe. This austerely elegant lay-out was put in place in the twentieth century to replace a fussier, nineteenth century composition. The more recent introduction of soft powder-blue plumbago in pots successfully lightens the severity of the stone.
The English park
Continuing the walk in the wide and luxuriant English park, through long rows of hornbeams, lime trees and oak trees you can find some essences which are very rare in their longevity. It is worth mentioning the three-hundreds-year old hornbeam and liriodendron, which are among the oldest in Veneto. Trees of particular interest are also the age-long red beech and plane.
A small portion of the park is dedicated to the nursery and to the flowers. Apart from the naturalistic-botanical heritage, the walk leads the visitor to an picturesque sixteenth-century dove cote (colombaia), used for breeding the pigeons (useful to send daily messages to Venice, but also exquisite ingredients of many traditional Venetian recipes).
You can also see a private chapel and a large fish-pond (obtained by filling the quarry, needed to build the house, with running water).
Some parts of the park are left as woods with age-long trees and numerous statues representing animals and realistic or fairytale characters (among them the curious series of “the dwarfs” and of the “musician monkeys”).
