October 8, 2022

October 8, 2022

We had planned to take a day trip from Padova, Italy to nearby Vicenza yesterday, but we had seen a notice that rail workers had a short strike planned. I think every time I have come to Italy I have had to work my schedule around these frequent strikes. The only saving grace is that the strikes are all scheduled ahead of time to reduce chaos. Italy has enough chaos without any additions.

It is only sixteen minutes to Vicenza. From the station we walked east past a marble victory arch and then south into the countryside. The scenery is hilly and scenic; villa country. When the extreme profits of the Silk Road trade faded with the opening of alternate sea routes to the Orient, the rich Venetians invested their money in land. Vicenza was one of their favored locations. From this arose, a visionary 16th century architect named Andrea Palladio. He would go on to inspire architects for generations in Europe and the United States.

We soon reach Palladio's most famous design, Villa Capra, commonly referred to as La Rotonda, but we are a little too early. We stroll the neighborhood noticing lots of dog warning signs. Violent crime in Italy is fairly low, but theft must be common.

At 10am, the gate opens and we can begin our tour. This square sided building has Neoclassical Greek Temple-style facades on each face. When we enter the home we are greeted with a lavishly decorated circular lobby with a massive dome. There are a series of rooms that encircle the center space. We then walk around the exterior but are disappointed to find the sun side in scaffolding. Italy seems to have construction going on everywhere. Looking at the facade, it is easy to recognize Palladio’s style copied in almost every government building in the US. This villa was also a direct inspiration for Thomas Jefferson and his Monticello home.

On the walk back we detoured uphill to Villa Valmarana ai Nani, another Palladio villa. The unique feature of this home is the many dwarf statues adorning the perimeter fence. Legend says the owner added this element because his daughter also suffered from this affliction.

We continued north reaching the Historic Center of Vicenza. This area and the villas are a World Heritage Site. We bought the Vicenza pass that gets us in several attractions. We start at the Palladio designed Teatro Olympico, completed in 1585. This is the oldest surviving Renaissance Theater, and it is a beauty. The backdrop is all Neoclassical Roman. There are three openings revealing streets and buildings that give a 3-D effect of a background city. We get lucky and a light show begins almost as soon as we arrive.

Just up the street, Aimee and I stopped at an outdoor cafe for drinks and a light lunch with lots of people watching. The snacks, sandwich and Tiramisu were delicious.

Re-energized Aimee strolled the market shops in Piazza dei Signori, while I photographed the surrounding buildings. Palladio designed many buildings here before hitting the big time in Venice. His most unique, Basilica Palladiana, lines almost the whole south side of the piazza. He rebuilt and added a new classical loggia facade in 1550 to this Gothic market hall. We climbed to the second floor to see the massive interior and to also get nice views of the vicinity.

Down the street is Santa Corona Church. It has two famous paintings in side-altars but I find another one decorated with dozens of paintings to be more interesting.

We rapidly run through the next-door Archeology Museum, because the lack of English signs makes it difficult to appreciate. The only thing I liked was the monumental sandal-ed foot relic from some Roman emperor or general.

Our next stop was the Palladio Museum to learn more about his life and career. This museum mostly has large models of his building designs inside the rooms of a nice palace. A little bit of a two-fer. Aimee and I were a little too impatient to listen to much of the dozen holographic lectures. Vicenza was the home of rich silk merchants that provided the funds for Palladio to develop his new architectural style.

On the way back to the train station we stopped in the uninteresting Vicenza Cathedral.

We came back to Padua a little early because of a reservation we made a month ago. We have tickets to tour the World Heritage Scrovegni Chapel. This jewel of Padua can only be visited for fifteen minutes on a timed ticket.

When we arrive we pass some old walls that continue around in a circle. I soon realize this is what is left of the old Roman arena of Padua. We have an hour so we spend time walking through the attached Pinacoteca Art Museum. It is massive filled with medieval and early Renaissance art. The most famous piece is the painted cross that once hung in the Scrovegni Chapel. We also breeze through the vast archeological site. Again there is no English.

The 6:15 PM group has a few openings, so the guard waves us in early. We first sit and a watch a short video giving us the historical background. This chapel was painted by Giotto in 1305. Giotto is considered the innovative painter who led the transition in art from the Medieval to the Renaissance. Medieval painting was flat, two-dimensional, and mostly expressionless. In Scrovegni, we can see the first paintings that use perspective to present a three-dimensional scene with background and foreground. This is 200 years ahead of Michelangelo and his Sistine Ceiling.

After the video we are ushered into the small rectangular chapel. It is brightly painted on every surface. There are dozens of panels that relate the complete story of Jesus, from Mary’s birth to the Crucifixion. The end panel is a large Last Judgement, famously with a vivid punishment of the damned.

Just outside Scrovegni, we had a Gnocchi pasta dumpling dinner washed down with Chianti. We had a nice day today. Vicenza turned out to be one of our favorite cities of Italy.