Villa Valmarana ai Nani
Last updated on November 10, 2026Hours verified November 2026
Villa Valmarana ai Nani is a modest eighteenth-century house on the hill below La Rotonda, and it holds one of the great fresco cycles in Europe. In 1757 Giambattista Tiepolo painted the main villa with scenes from Homer, Virgil, Ariosto and Tasso, while his son Giandomenico painted the guest wing with peasants, carnival scenes and Chinese fantasies -- the two of them, father and formal, son and earthbound, working within metres of each other.
Challenge to visitors
Winter closing is 16:00, and the last entry is an hour before that. That makes the usable winter window 10:00 to 15:00 — much shorter than the posted hours suggest, and the commonest way to arrive too late here.
It is partially accessible, and the operator says so and explains why. Eleven steps lead to the Piano Nobile, and the park underfoot is gravel. This is unusually candid and it means a wheelchair user can plan rather than hope.
The frescoes are the whole visit and they are dense. Two buildings, every surface painted, no obvious sequence — visitors who walk it like a house tour come out having seen very little of it.
Visiting tips and strategy
When to go
The frescoed rooms are lit largely by daylight through small windows, so a bright day genuinely improves the visit and a dark winter afternoon genuinely diminishes it.
Spring and early autumn are best overall: the gardens are open, the walk up from the city is pleasant, and the full opening season is running.
Getting the good version
Count backwards from the last entry. In winter that is 15:00, not 16:00. Arriving at half past two gives you half an hour and the frescoes deserve two.
Do the Foresteria properly, not as an annexe. The guest wing is frescoed throughout and is the lighter, stranger half of the house — and it is the part that is fully accessible, which makes it the right starting point for anyone who would struggle with the main building's steps.
Walk the park out to the first terrace. A ramp reaches it across the gravel, and it is where the two buildings and the hill finally read as one composition.
Combine it with Villa La Rotonda, ten minutes away on foot. The €15.00 standard ticket here covers interiors and exteriors; La Rotonda is the same price, and the pair is the reason to come out of Vicenza at all.
What it costs
€15.00 standard, covering both the interiors and the exteriors. A €20.00 Premium ticket adds a multimedia kit.
€12.00 reduced for holders of partner memberships including FAI and Touring Club Italiano, and for groups of fifteen or more and adult or senior university groups on an educational visit.
€9.00 for young people aged 12 to 25, for university students up to 25 including in groups, and for companions of people with disabilities.
€6.00 for students in school groups and their accompanying teachers. A family ticket for one adult with one young person aged 12 to 18 is €20.00, and a park ticket covering the Bosco and gardens alone is €8.00.
Free for people with disabilities, for children up to 11, for authorised tourist guides, and for one teacher per fifteen pupils in a school group.
Verified against Villa Valmarana ai Nani, November 2026.
Getting there and getting in
Where it is
Via dei Nani 8, Vicenza, on the hill south of the city, about ten minutes on foot from Villa La Rotonda. Telephone +39 0444 321803, info@villavalmarana.com.
Hours
Winter: daily 10:00–16:00.
6 March to 1 November 2027: daily 10:00–18:00.
Closed 25 December.
Last entry is up to one hour before closing, which in winter means 15:00 — the single most useful number on this page.
Tickets
€15.00 standard, €20.00 Premium with multimedia kit, €12.00 reduced, €9.00 for ages 12–25 and companions of disabled visitors, €6.00 school groups, €20.00 family, €8.00 park only. Free for people with disabilities, children to 11 and authorised guides.
How long
Ninety minutes for both buildings and the park. The café keeps its own shorter hours.
Verified against Villa Valmarana ai Nani, November 2026.
Place accessibility
Partially accessible, and the operator sets out exactly what that means — which makes this the most useful accessibility statement in the Veneto rollout so far. Because of the historic architecture, the villa describes itself as partially accessible to visitors with reduced mobility, and then gives the detail.
Reserved parking sits in the small square directly in front of the villa entrance at Via dei Nani 8, and from that main entrance you reach the front garden directly.
Eleven steps lead to the Piano Nobile — the same flight as the one described elsewhere on the approach — and the park underfoot is gravel. Crossing the whole park, a usable ramp gives access to the first terrace.
Equipped accessible toilets are at the far end of the rear park, and the Foresteria is fully accessible — which matters, because the guest wing is frescoed throughout and is a complete visit in itself.
A companion of a visitor with a disability pays €9.00, and the visitor with a disability enters free.
Quick facts
- Type: Mansion, Historic Place
- Local name: Villa Valmarana ai Nani (vedi la pagina italiana)
- Built: 1660s; frescoed 1757
- Built for: Giustino Valmarana
- Two Tiepolos, father and son: Giambattista frescoed the main villa with Homer, Virgil, Ariosto and Tasso in 1757; his son Giandomenico painted the guest wing with peasants and carnival scenes.
- The seventeen dwarves: Stone figures along the garden wall give the villa its name, wrapped in an invented local legend.
- UNESCO World Heritage Site: Yes
Where it is
Get directions Open in Apple Maps
© OpenStreetMap contributors · © CARTO · 45.5372, 11.5601
Visit responsibly
The frescoes are on plaster in rooms with no full climate control, and the visitor rules -- no flash, no touching, limited group sizes -- are what has kept them legible for 270 years.
It is a private house maintained by the family that owns it; ticket income is the maintenance budget, and there is no state museum behind it.
Walking or taking the bus up rather than driving matters here: the lane to the villa is narrow, residential and not built for visitor traffic.