It is called the Italian Holland, because so many are its lands conquered to the sea or defense, with the most varied contrivances, from the threat of the brackish waters. Nevertheless the greatest richness of the Veneto is just the water. There are more or less large rivers with a reticulum of hundred of small tributaries, lakes and alluvial lowlands , composed  by the detritus brought from the several Alpine rivers to the valleys. These create the geologic characteristic essential for the existence of the thermal phenomena. In the 1700 years, the government of the Republic of Venice  already considered these waters "an inestimable good for the community".

Land of art, colour, great artists and craftsmen. From the great cities to the small villages, the talent and the refinement of those who dedicate themselves to the many fields of the handicraft, have created real masterpieces as the glass from  Murano, the laces from Burano, the goldsmith’s from Vicenza, the toys of wood from Belluno...without to talk of the fantastic wines.  

But also people of poets, of  saints, of navigators.... and Popes. Really 19 Venetian Popes since the year 1073!! It begins in fact with Alexander II and it ends with Giovanni Paolo I (1912 – 1978). Deep spiritual roots, not visible to the careless eye, cohabiting with the extreme rationality and concreteness of the Venetian people.

Many the names which, thanks to the Veneto, have given glory to Italy: great travellers like Marco Polo and Sebastiano Caboto, lofty masters of Art like Canova and Tintoretto, famous men of Letters like Emilio Salgari, Ippolito Nievo, Ugo Foscolo, Dino Buzzati… No tradition instead for the adventurers. The Veneto has had only one : Giacomo Casanova (1725 - 1798)

The mind need to travel in Time and Space...

Nothing represents better this abstraction like the representation of the " Time " in Villa Barbarigo Ardemani, in Valsanzibio, hamlet of Galzignano Terme, province of Padova. Placed in the sweet landscape of the Euganei Hills, the villa, constructed in Venetian style in the second half of  the 17° century for the Venetian senator from which it takes name, astonishes for its magnificent park considered one of the more important and more complete in Europe. Among the existing wonders in this garden, can be also admired a very particular monument,   constructed around the 1700 years: a base with three steps support the great statue of an old giant, winged, with one knee on the ground and the hourglass. The statue brings on the shoulders - like burden – a large geometric solid in marble, a polyhedron formed by six squares and eight triangles. The composition constitutes an unusual sun-dial: in fact the lights and the shadows designed by the Sun on the polyhedron during the day concur to gain the hour.

Once again the union among Creativity, Spirituality, Esoterism and Pragmatism make of the Veneto a country of extreme opening and immediate concreteness. At last, then as today, to know what time  it  is,  is important.