Villa Ormaneto began as a gift between huntsmen. In the first half of the 1300s the Scaligeri, lords of Verona, built a hunting lodge in the flat farmland south of the city, and Cangrande della Scala gave it to his prefect of the hunt, Zonta Ormaneto, whose name the house still carries. Seven centuries on it is a small hotel with its own restaurant at Cerea, about 30 km south of Verona, and a wedding venue built around the same ground the lodge was made for: a park of old walnut trees, an avenue of hornbeams, a Baroque church next door and a kitchen that cooks the country food of the Veronese plain.
The lord of Verona and his prefect of the hunt
The della Scala family ruled Verona from 1262 to 1387. Cangrande I was sole ruler from 1311 until his death in 1329. He brought Vicenza, Padua and Treviso under his control, was the leading patron of Dante, and in peacetime spent his days hunting and hawking. His gift of the lodge to Zonta Ormaneto, his general prefect of the hunt, is how the house came by its name.
Cerea itself is older than the lodge. It was a fortified castrum from 923 until 1223, when it became a comune, and it grew again in the 18th century under Venetian rule, when noble families began building villas across the plain. The town is still known for its furniture makers, and the Menago river and the Brusà marsh nature reserve lie within its boundaries. Villa Ormaneto stands in open country on Via Isolella Bassa, among fields of wheat.
The villa now belongs to the De Santi Fabricci family. Camilla, who writes the villa’s journal, says her family bought it to keep its tradition while moving it on. The restoration preserved the old walls and the character of the building. Inside, exposed beams and glass chandeliers hang over leather sofas, designer furniture and contemporary paintings.
Walnuts, hornbeams and lavender
The park covers 10,000 square metres. Guests arrive along an avenue of hornbeams, with lavender planted beside the path that flowers from June into July. The lawns are shaded by old Caucasian walnut trees, and a swimming pool sits in the grounds, used for drinks before a wedding or for a brunch the morning after.
The park changes with the season. Summer brings long evenings and the cicadas. Camilla’s own favourite month for a wedding is October, when the maples turn yellow, orange and red, the hedge of Muhlenbergia capillaris along the facade fills with pink plumes and pampas grass moves at the edges of the lawns. Winter on the Veneto plain brings fog that can sit from sunset until late morning, which matters for anyone weighing a date in the colder months.
A civil licence in the park, a church next door
Since 2019 the villa has been recognised as a casa comunale, so the civil ceremony can take place on the property itself. Three settings are favoured: the open park, the old granary, a survivor of the estate’s farming life, and the hornbeam avenue. In October the falling leaves lie along that same avenue.
For a religious wedding, the small church of San Michele Arcangelo stands beside the villa. It is Baroque, well proportioned and keeps its original architectural details, with wooden pews and a marble altar beneath a statue of the archangel, dedicated to Saint Michael as patron of agriculture. With the church, the civil licence and the reception on one property, guests walk rather than drive from the vows to the drinks.
Dinner among the trees
For a full wedding, dinner is served in a tensile structure of 200 square metres set among the trees of the park, which seats up to 180 for lunch or dinner. Receptions can also use the restored rooms and porticoes of the villa, where a long hall under a beamed ceiling and chandeliers takes round tables for a smaller dinner. 5 Star Weddings’ records give up to 200 guests outdoors and 80 seated in the villa’s halls.
The cake is cut beneath the walnut trees, with candles and lights set out among the branches by the villa’s suppliers. Dogs are welcome throughout the day, free to run in the park and to stand in the photographs.
At the other end of the scale, the villa plans micro-weddings of no more than 35 to 40 guests. The format keeps the same kitchen and the same grounds, with every dish made by hand on the day.
The kitchen of the Bassa Veronese
Food is where Villa Ormaneto puts its weight. When the family opened a restaurant in the villa, they chose to cook the food of their own corner of the Veneto, and gave the kitchen to Gianluca Da Rin Perette, a chef born in Verona whose career has been spent bringing back dishes of memory. The restaurant, VI·OR, runs as a modern trattoria: the meal follows the classic Italian order of antipasti, first courses, main courses and dessert, and ends with coffee and a digestivo. Alongside the seasonal menu is a Menu of Forgotten Dishes, drawn from the peasant cooking of the Venetian countryside and made with ingredients from small local producers.
For a wedding, one chef is assigned to the couple and writes the menu with them around the season, served as a seated dinner or a standing one. The tortelli are made by hand on the day of the wedding. Two buffet stations can join the meal: the Isola di Zia Lina, laid with vintage porcelain in tribute to an aunt’s cooking, and a barbecue island, with finger food, meat and a dessert cooked in view of the guests. In autumn the kitchen turns to pumpkins, chestnuts, pomegranates and persimmons, and uses them in the table settings as well as on the plates.
Rooms for the closest guests
The villa runs as a small hotel with four kinds of room. Classic rooms of 20 square metres are on the ground floor of the dépendance, each with its own entrance, parking close by and a large glass shower, and suit guests with limited mobility. Deluxe rooms measure 28 square metres, and the Junior Suites, at 36, sit under sloping beams. The Deluxe Suite has a whirlpool bath and a spa area, and on the wedding morning it can serve as the bride’s room for preparations, with space for the makeup artist, the hairdresser and the photographer. 5 Star Weddings’ records count eight rooms sleeping 18, so the couple and their closest family can stay in the house, while most guests at a larger wedding will stay elsewhere.
Breakfast is served in a bright room looking onto the garden. For the days either side of the wedding, the villa can arrange a cooking class with the chef, a private yoga session in the park or a picnic on the lawns.
Finding Cerea
The villa is at Via Isolella Bassa 7/A, Cerea, in the province of Verona, and is reached by road. Verona Villafranca Airport lies 10 km south west of Verona, and Mantua, Ferrara, Rovigo and Padua are all within reach for guests who want to make a longer trip of it. 5 Star Weddings’ records give exclusive use of the villa from €6,000, with catering from €150 a guest. For another wedding villa in the province, read our Edit on Villa Mosconi Bertani in the Valpolicella, or browse wedding venues in Verona and Valpolicella.
A dinner for 180, or a table for 40
Villa Ormaneto suits a couple who want the ceremony, the dinner and the next day’s brunch on one country property of lawns and old trees, with a kitchen that treats the food as seriously as the setting. The decision that shapes everything else is size: a full wedding with dinner for up to 180 in the tensile structure in the park, or a micro-wedding of 35 to 40 at a single table, cooked for by one chef. Read the Villa Ormaneto profile and check your date.
