Montagnana

Montagnana is a walled town in the province of Padua, listed among Italy's "Borghi più belli" (most beautiful villages), best known for one of Europe's best-preserved circuits of medieval walls: a roughly 2 km, 14th-century fortification built up by the Carraresi lords of Padua to guard the frontier of their territory. Just outside the walls stands the Villa Pisani, designed around 1552 by Andrea Palladio for Cardinal Francesco Pisani and part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing for the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto; unusually for a Palladian villa, it combines an urban facade facing the town's piazza with a rural facade opening onto gardens and farmland. Montagnana also gives its name to a regional prosciutto (Prosciutto Veneto Berico-Euganeo DOP), celebrated with a festival each May.