We are visiting Vicenza on the trail of Andrea Palladio, a 16th century architect, whose fascination with Greek and Roman buildings led him to develop the Palladian style which spread throughout the world.
Our flight touched down in Verona just after lunch and in a couple of hours we had taken the airport shuttle to the station, caught a train and arrived in Vicenza. Having checked in we went for a passeggiata along the Corso Andrea Palladio, studded with palazzos with ionic columns soaring skywards and stopped on the way for a gelato and later an aperol undernthe eye of the man himself.
We had a fabulous dinner at Il Molo, a small restaurant near the hotel, dining on tiny stuffed sardines and tomino cheese then huge bowls of pasta.
Piazza dei Signori is the heart of the city and is faced on one side by the magnificent Basilica Palladio, which isn’t a church, but a building containing civic offices and shops. The pre-existing building had proved unstable, and Palladio suggested a scheme to clad and reinforce the building, creating facades with two floors of beatifully proportioned loggias.
The piazza also contains the Rua or emblem of Padua, which had been part of an annual festival since 1444 and also a lion on a column signifying that Vicenza was once ruled by Venice.
Next, a couple of Paladio’s palazzos. First Chiericati, stunning from the outside and containing the city art collection, with the most fun being a frescoed ceiling featuring a charioteer from below!
Next was Theine, built for a family who had made their fortune producing silk on their country estates but now owned by a bank. Past the impressive facades, the interior is full of stuccoed decoration and frescoed ceilings, but no photos allowed. It’s jewel was a rarely displayed crucifixion by Bellini.
We stopped in a self service restaurant filled with locals and tourists for lunch, which runs on an honour system – you collect your food from the kitchen, eat, then tell the cashier what you’ve had at the end! My risotto flavoured by bacala, the local speciality of dried fish was particularly good.
I promised gardens and the first, albeit small, was Giordini Salvi, with a very pretty loggia and view from a Bridge.
Finally, Palladio’s last work, the Teatro Olympico, in the style of a Roman theatre with a curved auditorium and stunning stage with a central triumphal arch surrounded by columns and statuary, just like the grand facade of a Paladian palazzo. Behind this is an elaborate stage set with trompe l’oeil views of the streets of of Thebes designed by Scamozzi. There was a dead fox hanging down in the centre, part of the scenery for Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, a play in Spanish with Italian subtitles but sadly it was sold out!
That evening it was warm enough to sit out under the stars in Piazza Signori as we ate.
Having seen Paladio’s urban architecture yesterday, today is the turn of his most famous villa, La Rotunda, just outside the city. It stands on a small hill commanding great views of the surrounding countryside, a jewel of a building intended for entertaining and built for the retirement of a papal bishop who was part of the refined cultural circle of the time. The central round hall has a domed roof and is within a square with four facades each with portico, steps and ionic columns. Every interior surface is frescoed and stuccoed and statues and marble floors and fireplaces.
On the way back we stopped at Villa Valmarana ai Nani, not by Palladio, but filled with frescos and named after the nani or dwarves along the wall outside …
… and also Monte Berico for the view across the city. It was built following a sighting of the Virgin Mary at a time of the plague and is an important pilgrim site, connected to Vicenza by an arcaded walkway.
After our pleasant morning walk, it was time to retrieve our luggage and catch a train east to Padova.
Off Travelling Together 