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Vicenza, the home and shrine of architect and architecture author Andrea di
Pietro della Gondola ("Palladio") (1508-80), is about one hour's drive from
either Venice or Verona. Although the real Vicenza is a fairly large wealthy
industrial sprawl, the old center is a beautiful place for a tourist. A good
place to start a tour is the parking lot opposite the Teatro Olimpico. This was
Palladio's last project, which opened after he died with a 1585 performance of
Sophocles's Oedipus Rex. Perfectly preserved, the semicircular
indoor theater recalls the design of ancient Greek venues.
Pick up a map at the tourist office right next to the theater entrance. This
marks all of the buildings in the area that were designed by Palladio. Palladio's
popularity with the Vicentine nobility was helped by his fondness for cheap brick
covered in faux marble stucco. His reputation through the ages was ensured by his
books. Sir Reginald Blomfield, in Studies in Architecture, wrote
"With the touch of pedantry that suited the times and invested his writings with
a fallacious air of scholarship, he was the very man to summarize and classify,
and to save future generations of architects the labor of thinking for
themselves." I asked a distinguished Canadian architect whether he concurred with
Blomfield's denigration of Palladio. He responded, "Have you ever looked at one
of Palladio's buildings?"
The downtown Palladian buildings are an easy walk from the Teatro Olimpico
parking lot, including the Piazza dei Signori which contains the massive
"basilica" that the town hall going back to the 15th century but suffered from
subsidence. Palladio propped it up with a colonnade and it is therefore supposed
to be a tourist attraction.
A couple of miles out of town are some important villas, including the
Rotonda, a 1550 Palladio design. A pedestrian alley links the Rotonda's street to
the Villa Valmarana, a 1688 Antonio Muttoni design. These are only open spring
through fall so I haven't seen the interiors.
A quick drive from the villas is Monte Berico, a beautiful hill overlooking the
town. There is a Baroque church on top of the hill, dedicated to the Virgin who
"appeared on this spot during the 1426-8 plague to announce that Vicenza would be
spared."
More about the Basilica Di Monte Berico.
The story about the Virgin's appearance and the consequent building project is good as far as it goes. An addendum that does not appear on the description of the Basilica is:
The Vicentines started construction on the basilica, the plague ended and so did the construction. The plague started up again, the Virgin appeared again, construction was followed through to completion, and the plague ended, again.
Keep driving past the Basilica. At sunset, the view from the Berico ridge is spectacular.
Ah Vicenza. I spent four months studying at the University in Padova and spent a few day in Vicenza. La Rotonda is with out a doubt the finest looking house ever built. One day when I win the lottery I'm going to buy it. :-)
I've got a load of slides of it, I should really did then out and scan then in to see if they are any good. I was there between February and July so there wasn't any snow. The four towns of Verona, Vicenza, Padova and Venice are fantastic as they are all on the same railway line and very easy to get to. It is a wonderful part of Italy.
I was on a one-day trip to Vicenza only, in April 2003. When I wanted to take the train back after seeing the most important works of Palladio, including the Villa Rotonda, I noticed that trains were at that time of the day only each 2 hours to Milano, not each hour. So having one hour more for sighseeing, I went to places closer to the station, like Giardini Salvi (picture above).
I like the winter pictures of the Villa Rotonda in this article - snow seems to give an original note to photos generally, and it works in this case also.
What I like in Italy is that cities have the graving like drawing printed on their public transport tickets - in Vicenza the Basilica Palladiana for the 70 minutes ticket I had.
