Villa Badoer site features

The house stands on a raised podium, reached by a broad flight of steps, under a six-column Ionic portico and pediment — the Roman temple front applied whole and without apology. The platform is a practical answer to ground that floods, and it also gives the building its command of the approach.

What makes this the one to see is the pair of curved colonnades sweeping forward from either side to enclose the forecourt. Palladio's barchesse — the working wings that housed carts, tools and grain — are normally straight runs. Here they bend, and the courtyard they frame works the way a small piazza does. It is the first time he built the idea, and the clearest.

Approach from the front rather than the car park if you can. The composition was designed to be met head-on, and the curve only does its work from there.