17 September '05, Saturday.
What I didn't see in Verona, I've found in Vicenza...what a beautiful town. When I mention town, I mean the "old town" area. We normally don't get a chance to visit the "newer" areas of the places we visit, as we are like most other tourists...interested in the past historys. We had about an hours drive from Verona to Vicenza and we went directly to the town. I don't know how we found our parking lot, but did. It was not crowded, and it wasn't too far out of the main areas we wanted to see, and we will take every break we can get. Everytime we drive under one of the towns gates, I kind of duck my head in hopes that "Bumble Bee" will make it through without loosing her top...so far, only once did we make contact, and we were able to back out without too much of a headache. Now this was a "photographers delight". A number of things about Vicenza make it unique, but one is being the home of Palladio... Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, or better known as "Palladio" was the 16th century Renaissance architect who gave us the Palladian style architecture we have seen throughout Europe and the states. "Palladio" was a one man construction team. He designed and built more than 20 major buildings here in Vicenza, and all are spectacular. Fact is Thomas Jefferson was so taken with his work that he was inspired to build Jefferson's Monticello from the design taken from Villa la Rotonda here in Vicenza. We also took in the Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theater) which again was built and designed by Palladio. This happened to be his last and some say his greatest. It was and still is a "preforming" theatre. He started construction in 1580 but, unfortunately he didn't see it completed because of his death. The "movable" scenes on the stage depict 5 streets that were idealized from the city of Thebes. These scenes are still being used today in the gala opening of Oedipus Rex, that has been protrayed each and every season since. Other classical plays are staged throughout the year, but unfortunately again, we have just missed one by a day and the next wont start until next week. We will have to come back... We also had a chance to visit the Church of the Holy Crown (Santa Corona). This 13th century church was built to house a thorn, supposedly from Jesus' crown of thorns. Today was a lot of looking up and looking through the buildings of Palladio. It was also a day of some very fine art in some beautiful churches, and as always, window shopping...you really see some very different clothing designs here in Italy...is this the designs we will see coming to the states? We'll just have to wait and see... Tomorrow...Padua
What I didn't see in Verona, I've found in Vicenza...what a beautiful town. When I mention town, I mean the "old town" area. We normally don't get a chance to visit the "newer" areas of the places we visit, as we are like most other tourists...interested in the past historys. We had about an hours drive from Verona to Vicenza and we went directly to the town. I don't know how we found our parking lot, but did. It was not crowded, and it wasn't too far out of the main areas we wanted to see, and we will take every break we can get. Everytime we drive under one of the towns gates, I kind of duck my head in hopes that "Bumble Bee" will make it through without loosing her top...so far, only once did we make contact, and we were able to back out without too much of a headache. Now this was a "photographers delight". A number of things about Vicenza make it unique, but one is being the home of Palladio... Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, or better known as "Palladio" was the 16th century Renaissance architect who gave us the Palladian style architecture we have seen throughout Europe and the states. "Palladio" was a one man construction team. He designed and built more than 20 major buildings here in Vicenza, and all are spectacular. Fact is Thomas Jefferson was so taken with his work that he was inspired to build Jefferson's Monticello from the design taken from Villa la Rotonda here in Vicenza. We also took in the Teatro Olimpico (Olympic Theater) which again was built and designed by Palladio. This happened to be his last and some say his greatest. It was and still is a "preforming" theatre. He started construction in 1580 but, unfortunately he didn't see it completed because of his death. The "movable" scenes on the stage depict 5 streets that were idealized from the city of Thebes. These scenes are still being used today in the gala opening of Oedipus Rex, that has been protrayed each and every season since. Other classical plays are staged throughout the year, but unfortunately again, we have just missed one by a day and the next wont start until next week. We will have to come back... We also had a chance to visit the Church of the Holy Crown (Santa Corona). This 13th century church was built to house a thorn, supposedly from Jesus' crown of thorns. Today was a lot of looking up and looking through the buildings of Palladio. It was also a day of some very fine art in some beautiful churches, and as always, window shopping...you really see some very different clothing designs here in Italy...is this the designs we will see coming to the states? We'll just have to wait and see... Tomorrow...Padua