Villa in the Zappa Valley, Hunting lodge in Campagna Lupia, Italy

The Casone di Valle Zappa is a rural hunting and fishing lodge on an islet in the southern Venice Lagoon, in the municipality of Campagna Lupia. Built between 1923 and 1928, it resembles a Dutch farmhouse with a facade bearing a coat of arms with three hoes. The complex includes a barchessa, a lighthouse-like game-watching tower that also serves as a water cistern, and rooms each painted in a different colour.

The building was erected between 1923 and 1928 for the Vicentine entrepreneur Mario Malvezzi, to a design by the architect Duilio Torres in an eclectic style modelled on a Dutch farm. The Arrigoni degli Oddi family owned the valley from 1867 to 1942, and a coat of arms with three hoes on the facade recalls them. Since then the complex has passed to the Roncato family of Padua.

The name Valle Zappa comes from the zappe (hoes) on the coat of arms of the Arrigoni degli Oddi family, owners from 1867 to 1942. A plaque records that Count Ettore Arrigoni degli Oddi shot 51,303 birds between August 1877 and December 1921, including 374 in a single day on 21 April 1911. The fireplace hoods carry sayings and proverbs in Venetian dialect.

The property can be reached by water routes from Chioggia or Venice, or by taking the dirt road that connects to the SS309 Romea state road. The location in marshy terrain means water levels and seasonal conditions affect accessibility throughout the year.

The fireplaces on the ground floor feature sayings written in the Venetian dialect, reflecting the local hunting traditions and beliefs. Each room was painted in a specific color that matched the hunting position it was meant to serve.