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The La Rotonda’s honey

The honey is not just a product, it represents and encloses much more.

It is a fruit that comes from the earth and if the earth is healthy and the bees feel comfortable, then the honey will also be good as a result.

The Rotonda’s voluntary sets up in the vicinity of the Palladian Villa so close to the hives for the production of the honey, wants to in some sense, create a correspondence between what can be defined as both the internal beauty and the external beauty, that is, the countryside and the nature that surrounds it.

The bees are the natural thermometer of the quality of the context, villa/countryside.

The rest of the countryside needs to represent what the earth can give us in the moment in which we need it most.

The bees have been chosen precisely because they symbolize industriousness and collaboration. They enter into symbiosis with La Rotonda, a place full of stimuli which becomes impossible to remain still. On the other hand, it is necessary to underline how the countryside and in general the natural landscape, are a fundamental element for the Villas born to manage these great properties of land and La Rotonda is no exception, it stands on a natural contoured elevated position that acts as a dress, it gives it context as it is spontaneously part of the DNA of the Villa itself.

From this perspective honey production, sold at Villa’s bookshop, is meant to be the first step of a bigger project that aims, in the next future, to give new dignity to the natural landscape and change it in a context which can make a big difference, giving the example to the visitors to experience it more actively and involving, as part of the Villa itself.

The works of Andrea Palladio, the most influential architect ever, told by those who studies it today, lives it and preserves it for future generations. The journey of a cosmopolitan professor from Belgium to the United States to meet his mentors Kenneth Frampton and Peter Eisenman, the discoveries of three young restorers at Villa Saraceno in Veneto, the debate of tomorrow’s architects at the University of Yale. A choral and contemporary tale suspended between the Pantheon, Villa La Rotonda and the White House, between the Venetian countryside and the United States, where Palladio inspired the symbols of the nascent nation.

Sir Norman Foster visiting La Rotonda

When Sir Norman Foster, a British architect and designer, among the leading exponents of high tech architecture, came to visit la Rotonda in October a bridge was created, a deep and powerful connection between today’s and yesterday’s architecture.

A visit in the name of respect and silence inside the building that, though its structures and decorations, transmits continuous and intense vibrations. On the other hand, each arch, every structure or decoration tells the visitor something regarding the Rotonda’s story, from the 16th century with its construction.

Visiting Venice with his wife Elena Ochoa Foster and Francesco Bellavitis guest, sir Norman Foster, awarded Pritzker and nominated as a lord by the Queen of England in 1999 and author of masterpieces of contemporary architecture. Such as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, the City Hall, the Millennium Bridge in London and the Dome in Berlin’s Parliament, decided to enjoy the beauties of nearby Vicenza: starting from the palladian Basilica, a public building overlooking Piazza dei Signori, continuing with the Olympic Theatre, one of the wonders of the city, and concluding with La Rotonda.    

A magnificent visit, unexpected, which takes place at an unexpected time, when the person, the visitor and also an even number like Sir Norman Foster, who finds no common denominator with certain types of situations, manage to get into symbiosis with the place. 

After the visit, Nicolò Valmarana proposed to the British architect to “consider La Rotonda as his studio” in the hope that such an occasion could be repeated in the future .

The feeling is that from characters of this caliber you also learn from their silence, from the respect and smile of deep gratitude and condescension.