And it is precisely on the Brenta Riviera,’ says Stefano Piccolo, general manager of the Burchiello mini-cruises, ‘that, not far from the city, the wealthiest patricians spent their holidays, departing from Venice in typical, comfortable luxury boats called Burchiello that sailed up the navigable Brenta Canal; these boats were propelled by sail or oars from St. Mark’s, across the Venetian lagoon to Fusina, from where they were pulled by horses to Padua.
To facilitate navigation, Stefano explains, Conche di Navigazione – locks –, also known as Chiuse or Porte, were built, real water lifts that joined waterways of different heights and allowed boats to ascend or descend the waterway. The Riviera del Brenta was the fashionable canal, a place of delight and an ideal extension of the Grand Canal in Venice, where more than seventy luxurious villas flourished.
The Venetian nobility transferred the elegance, refinement and luxury of Venice to the Burchiello. The Burchiello was a typical Venetian vessel for transporting wealthier passengers, equipped with a large wooden cabin with four balconies, finely crafted and decorated with gilded stuccoes and mirrors. The voyage was fascinating and entertaining; in the slow progress between the villas and the weeping willows, ladies and cicisbei, nobles and adventurers, comedians and artists animated life on board, making the river journey picturesque and pleasant.
The Burchiello, Stefano concludes, became one with the Riviera del Brenta; frequented and used over the centuries by important personalities, poets, painters and musicians who described and portrayed it in their works, the Burchiello became the symbol of the epic civilisation of the Villas, quoted and represented in countless works of art. And today, as back then, every year from March to October, the Burchiello sails from Padua to Venice, and vice versa, stopping at the most important and famous Venetian Villas for an inland tour, and a large group of boats takes thousands of people to visit the ancient Villas of the fantastic Riviera del Brenta.
