Villa Manin-Kechler, 16th-century Venetian villa in San Martino, Codroipo, Italy.

Villa Manin-Kechler is a 16th-century hunting lodge in San Martino, a hamlet of Codroipo. Its cubic main block is flanked by two barchesse that once housed stables, and a single hall runs the full depth of the ground floor, with matching doors front and back. A monumental staircase inside leads to the first-floor rooms, and the neoclassical garden has statues along the entrance avenue.

The Manin family built the villa in the 16th century and occupied it until moving to their new estate at Passariano. The Kechler family subsequently acquired the property and shaped its evolution through different uses over several generations.

The western barchessa was converted into a silk mill in the 19th century under the Kechler family. To improve silkworm selection, Louis Pasteur was invited to San Martino. The mill building still stands as part of the estate.

The buildings were renovated in 1975 and divided into two separate residential units with independent access points, which affects how you can move through the space. Plan to explore the grounds on foot and allow time to see both the main house and the farm buildings around it.

Hemingway's stays at San Martino were tied to Count Carlo Kechler, with whom he hunted and fished in the Caorle valleys. In 1948 he began a romantic friendship with the young Venetian aristocrat Adriana Ivancich, whom he had met through Kechler, and in 1954 he returned to recover from a serious plane crash in Africa.