The golden age of Vicenza began in 1540, when the Venetian aristocracy decided to reorganize the city and its countryside and called Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, known as Palladio, one of the greatest architects of the time, for the arduous task. Palladio was commissioned to design the new residences owned by the Venetian nobles and so it was that in those years Vicenza began to enrich itself with marvelous private palaces and public buildings while extraordinary villas were designed in the countryside. “The city of Vicenza and the villas of Palladio in the Veneto” have thus been nominated a UNESCO Site for a total of 23 Vicenza palaces and 24 villas in the surrounding area.