Telling how the "villa," with its characteristic architectural typology, gradually goes on to cover different functions: from being an economic hub of agricultural and entrepreneurial development (and thus also of political control) of the "mainland," starting from the lands owned by the Serenissima's patriciate, gradually rising to a place of residence and vacation, loading itself in some cases with important functions of civil and diplomatic representation. Two actors (transformists), playing several characters in the show, dress up the different roles from time to time. The protagonists of the Animated Visit are the most famous Commedia dell'arte masks, putte and other characters, who are traveling in burcio-burchiello along the Naviglio-Brenta or the Sile to take an ideal route in the Venetian "mainland" between plain and hill. In fact, the vast majority of villas could be reached by water, a more convenient and safer transportation system than by land.

Each mask, according to the preeminent character of its type, highlights, with irony but also with affectionate participation, peculiar aspects of villa life in the pompous twilight of the Serenissima: the economic relevance, as the fulcrum of the first agricultural revolution of modern times, which, however, passed into the background over the centuries; the "salutist" and sentimental expectations of the holidaymakers who charged their stay in the countryside with an eager search for pleasure, recreation, and good aesthetic and existential taste; the image values of some large residences, "little Versailles," magnificent in their architectural forms, their stucco and fresco decorations, and the shows and events that were staged there.

Info: the entrance ticket to Monselice Castle is to be paid on site, at the reduced price of €7.