Nina Guest House

Romantic Cantoniera house of a disused railway line surrounded by greenery

Historic Cantoniera house of the disused Treviso-Ostiglia railway line.

The Treviso-Ostiglia railway line.

The construction of this line was designed, for strategic purposes, by the Italian Army, at the beginning of the last century, in order to be able to quickly displace troops in the event of a war against Austria-Hungary. The construction work was suspended since the outbreak of the First World War and then resumed in the 1920s, ending only in the early 1940s, in the imminence of the Second World War.

In its complete extension, the railway line had little life, since it was heavily bombed by the Allies in 1944. In the short period of its existence it functioned both as a war infrastructure for the transport of goods and as a means of transporting people.

In September 1946, shortly after the end of the Second World War, the Allied army reactivated some routes but the line was definitively closed to operation in 1965.

The project to transform the railway line into a cycle path, called the Treviso-Ostiglia cycle path, was activated in the 2000s. This project led to the creation of a cycle / pedestrian track that currently connects the province of Treviso with the province of Padua, reaching the borders with the province of Vicenza.

The history of the Cantoniera house n. 57+ 257

My family's connection with this cantonal house began in 1949 when grandfather Mario, a railway worker, was transferred from Venice to Villaganzerla, a small village in the Vicenza countryside. From that moment on, he, grandmother Amelia and my mother Nina, who was only 7 years old at the time, became its custodians.

The post-war period.

The war had just ended and the railway line, heavily affected by the bombing, was returning to function. Everywhere he corrected what had been damaged and the desire to build something new was also born.

In this atmosphere of renewal, even the grandparents were preparing to write a new chapter in their lives that would be enriched by the new stories that began to unfold before their eyes.

New friends came knocking on the solid and reassuring doors of the Casa Cantoniera, new trains passed over those tracks, many lives got off and left from the stop in the small Villaganzerla.

Mom dad

Little by little the grandparents and their mother fell in love with that village at the foot of the Berici Hills and when at the end of the 60s the Treviso-Ostiglia line was abandoned, they decided to continue living in that cantonal house where it would remain forever imprinted the spirit of travelers.

In Villaganzerla mother met our father Giuseppe. After a few years of engagement, they decided to get married and go to live in the second apartment which made up the house to which my mother was strongly attached. My sister and I grew up there, listening to the travel stories that our grandparents told us, learning to know, through their stories, the many characters who passed by and who sometimes stayed there, asking for hospitalization for one night.

The purchase of the Cantoniera house.

In the 1980s, grandfather purchased the entire cantonal house and the annexed land where our parents later built the house where Roberta and I grew up.

For us sisters, the tracks, later removed from the State Railways, were the protagonists of our childhood games. How many balance races, how many springs were announced by the blooming of blue and white violets along the sleepers, how much serenity the scent of the wood of the joints, how many evenings with friends sitting on the rails with their noses upturned to count the stars.

After the grandparents passed away, mom and dad decided to renovate the canton house, completely modifying the interior, adding a new wing but keeping the external facade unchanged, to remember its origins. The end result was two spacious and bright residences of 100 square meters each, one on the ground floor and the other on the first floor.

Nina Guest House

In 2013 my sister and I decided to transform the Casa Cantoniera into a holiday home by choosing the name Nina Guest House in memory of our mother Nina, who passed away in 2006.

As originally the Casa Cantoniera has therefore returned to being the custodian of the stories of many new travelers who choose their homes both to visit the beautiful Venetian cities and for work.

I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to meet many wonderful people every day who come here from all over the world. From the stories of those who lived there, it seems that this house has a beautiful karma and that it is good for all those who have chosen it.

I hope to meet you too who are reading me soon!

Alessandra, proud guardian of the Casa Cantoniera dei Viaggiatori


Dwelling Elegance

Bright and elegant residence on the first floor of the Casa Cantoniera, with two beautiful bedrooms, two balconies, bathroom, independent kitchen and large living room with flat-screen satellite TV. Ideal for 1-4 guests.