Villa Serego

Villa Serego at Santa Sofia di Pedemonte, on the southern edge of Valpolicella, was designed by Andrea Palladio and never finished.

What was built is roughly a third of the intended house, and it does not look like the rest of his work. Instead of smooth columns and a temple front, the courtyard is ringed by massive rusticated columns -- each shaft built up from rough, irregular stone drums, so that the classical order appears half-quarried.

It is one of the twenty-four Palladian villas inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and among the least like the popular idea of Palladio.

This is a private house on a working farm, not a public monument. Book, keep the appointment, and stay with the guide.

Do not climb on or lean against the columns. They are sixteenth-century masonry that has already spent centuries as farm structure.

If the visit includes a tasting, arrange a driver -- the roads here are narrow and the wines are strong.

Buying from the estate supports the hillside vineyards of the Classico zone, which are expensive to farm and steadily giving way to flat-land planting.

The villa is privately owned and part of a working wine estate. It is not freely open -- visits are by appointment, and are generally arranged through the estate as part of a wine visit.

Book ahead. Arriving unannounced will not get you in, and the fragment is largely invisible from the road.

It is at Pedemonte, about twenty minutes by car from Verona. There is no useful public transport.

Allow an hour, or ninety minutes with a tasting.

The courtyard is at ground level but the surfaces are old, uneven and agricultural; accessibility is limited and worth raising when booking.