Andrea Palladio is universally regarded as one of the most important architects of the Re-naissance. He was the first "professional architect" and was strongly influenced by Greek and Roman architecture, particularly by Vitruvius. His treatise "Quattro libri dell'architettura" also earned him worldwide recognition.

Palladio's villas meanwhile are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

This book documents and analyzes ten of Palladio's eighteen surviving villas specifically in terms of their relationship with their natural surroundings; their influence on those surroundings is investigated as well. The selected villas constitute a representative cross section of Palladio's wide-ranging output. The landscape formations of Veneto, where these villas are located, may be divided into three types: plains surrounded by mountains, arid plains, and marshland.

Gerrit Smienk is a landscape architect with many years teaching experience at the TU Delft and the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam, and is a recognized expert on the Italian Renaissance.