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, leaving Venice aboard typical and comfortable luxury boats called Burchielli that travelled up the Navigable Brenta Canal. These boats were powered by sail or by oars from St. Mark’s Square across the Venetian Lagoon to Fusina, where they were then pulled by horses all the way to Padua.
To facilitate navigation, Stefano explains, navigation locks (“Conche di navigazione“) – also known as Chiuse or Porte, were built. These true water elevators connected waterways at different levels, allowing boats to travel upstream or downstream. 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 brought to Burchiello the elegance, refinement and luxury that defined the city of Venice. The Burchiello was a typical Venetian vessel for transporting wealthier passengers, featuring a large wooden cabin with four balconies, finely crafted and decorated with gilded stuccoes and mirrors. The journey itself was fascinating and entertaining; as the boat glided slowly past villas and 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. Over the centuries it was frequented and used by important personalities, such as poets, painters and musicians who described and portrayed it in their works, turning the Burchiello into the very symbol of the golden age of the Venetian Villas, mentioned and depicted in countless masterpieces. 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.
